Kiana Amiri-Davani
Overview
Kiana Amiri-Davani is an Associate in the Environmental Law and Land Use Practice Groups. She focuses on all phases of land use and environmental matters including regulatory compliance, hazardous materials management, contaminated site remediation and cleanup, litigation and agency enforcement defense. Kiana advises in a variety of sectors including aerospace and defense, industrial manufacturing, oil and gas, transmission and energy distribution, as well as public sector agencies.
Kiana has prior experience with environmental law firms that represented a diverse client base of Fortune 100 companies, small businesses, government agencies, community groups, and individuals. She focuses on CEQA, CERCLA, RCRA, Clean Water Act, and land use matters, advising on environmental compliance for various complex projects including residential, commercial, industrial, and mixed-use developments throughout California. Kiana also has experience conducting environmental due diligence from a project’s inception all through the administrative review and approval process, to successfully defending challenges to project approvals. Her extensive knowledge of environmental constraints and the development process is often considered invaluable to clients contemplating or pursuing real estate transactions.
Additionally, Kiana’s practice is enhanced through a formal education as a soil scientist and as a prior environmental consultant for a number of years as a project scientist. She also holds a background in coordinating the environmental compliance, permitting, remedial and other mitigation activities required to achieve timely and cost-effective completion of complex environmental projects.
Representative Experience
- Represented a Fortune 100 company named on ISEO by DTSC; draft memoranda, review and analyze H&S code regulations; and participate in settlement negotiation efforts.
- Represented a landowner in suit against the RWQCB for improper issuance of an investigative order; concurrently represent client in a CERCLA and HSAA suit for the contamination under a City-owned street; draft pleadings and motions, negotiate with AG’s office.
- Successfully represented a citizens group challenging the adequacy of a registration permit issued by an LEA and obtained a favorable outcome in Administrative Hearing.
- Defend semiconductor manufacturing company named in a CERCLA and HSAA suit.
- Successfully defended the County of Los Angeles in a CEQA challenge regarding approval for landfill operations; drafted pleadings, prepared the AR; and sat second chair in litigation.
- Represented the County of Tulare in CEQA litigation challenge of a CAP; successfully negotiated a settlement with conservation groups to address GHG emissions.
- Represented the CPUC in the legal review and analysis of environmental documents for CEQA compliance and consistency with the Government Code, local ordinances and regulations for a variety of land use projects.
- Successfully defended a tenant named in a CERCLA, RCRA, and HSAA suit for the discharge of hazardous substances from historical dry-cleaning operations.
- Represented commercial property owner in storm water runoff dispute regarding a defective V-ditch undermining a retaining wall on an adjacent residential community.
Honors and Awards
- Northern California Rising Stars list: Environmental Law, Super Lawyers Magazine, 2021-2022
Presentations and Publications
- Presenter, “The Builder’s Remedy for Housing: What Agencies, Developers, and Advocates Should Know,” Meyers Nave webinar, April 12, 2023
Affiliations
- Member, California Lawyers Association – Environment Law Section
- Membership & Early Programs Assistant Director – Women’s Energy Network California Chapter
- Member, San Francisco Bar Association – Environmental Section
- Executive Committee Member, San Francisco Bar Association Barristers – Environmental, Land Use and Real Estate Sections
- Member, Association of Environmental Professionals
Education
- Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of LawJD, 2017
- California Polytechnic State UniversityBS, Soil Science, 2008