SAMIA BROADAWAY is a partner at Baker Botts in Austin, TX. She works on a wide range of environmental permitting, litigation, and regulatory compliance matters at the state and federal levels. Her permitting experience includes water quality, water rights, air quality, waste, and underground injection control, including carbon capture. She also represents entities in contested environmental and enforcement proceedings and provides environmental regulatory counseling and transactional support for water, waste, air, and natural resources projects.  

KARRIGAN BORK is a professor at UC Davis in Davis, CA. His publications run the gamut from the definitive text on the history and application of California minimum streamflow requirements below dams to a hatchery and genetic management plan for the reintroduction of spring-run Chinook salmon in the San Joaquin River. He works on legal and ethical issues in ecological restoration, especially problems that involve both science and law. Much of his current research focuses on western water law. Professor Bork graduated with Distinction and Pro Bono Distinction from Stanford Law School in 2009 and completed his PhD dissertation in Ecology at UC Davis in September 2011. He received the Shapiro Family Award in 2011 as the Outstanding PhD Graduate in Ecology at UC Davis. He clerked for Tenth Circuit Chief Judge Mary Beck Briscoe, U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson, and Judge Janice Karlin on the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Kansas. In 2022, he received the UC Davis Distinguished Teaching award. He enjoys fishing, rafting, rock hounding, watching college basketball, and spending time with friends and family.  

BRITTANY JOHNSON is a shareholder at Somach Simmons & Dunn in Sacramento, CA. Respected for her leadership and resourceful lawyering, she blends creativity with laser-focused research to deliver value for her water quality and water resources clients inside and outside the courtroom.  Her practice focuses on helping water users and wastewater dischargers understand and comply with regulations affecting operations and facilities. In the water quality arena, Brittany advises publicly owned wastewater treatment plants and private companies on compliance with discharge permits and avoidance of permit violations.  Brittany helps facilities with permit renewal and term negotiations to ensure sound and agreeable stormwater management plans.  She comfortably collaborates among key stakeholders and senior leadership at regional water quality control boards, cities, municipalities, and other agencies to ensure her clients operate efficiently and effectively for their customers.  When lawsuits threaten those services, Brittany seamlessly transitions to strategist and problem-solver in defending enforcement actions. Brittany also represents water users on water rights matters and in litigation arising from the management and implementation of their water rights.  This work includes years of litigation on Endangered Species Act (ESA) cases challenging consultations on historic water contracts held by senior water right holders in the Sacramento Valley, and ESA cases challenging the complex consultations for operations of the Central Valley Project and the Klamath Project. Known for her experience with interstate water matters, Brittany is an integral member of the litigation team for the State of Texas in the original jurisdiction action before the United States Supreme Court, Texas v. New Mexico, regarding the interpretation and enforcement of the Rio Grande Compact.  She has worked on the case since the filing of the complaint in 2013, managing the briefing efforts to the Special Master and the Court to defeat New Mexico’s motion to dismiss, and working with the team on all aspects of discovery.  Brittany also advises clients on the Colorado River, working with Section 5 water contractors to navigate the Law of the River and providing strategic and legal advice on water transfers and other projects under the complex set of authorities.  On a different aspect of Colorado River operations, Brittany represented the Arizona Power Authority and assisted the agency in developing its historic allocation of Hoover power within Arizona, and negotiating its 50-year contract with federal agencies for its Hoover power allocation. Prior to practicing natural resources law and litigation, Brittany served as a law clerk to the Honorable Laura D. Millman at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, Office of Special Masters, where she had the unique experience of working on Vaccine Act claims.