Out-of-Home Advertising

Billboard law is central to Michael’s practice. The First Amendment dominates regulation of out-of-home advertising. The field also involves due process and other areas of constitutional law, as well as zoning, real estate and land-use law – and some plain politics. Michael has represented out-of-home companies in matters ranging from local zoning appeals to cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. With long-time colleague Mark Eastman, Michael also handles acquisitions, corporate restructuring, and other transactional matters.

The California Prevailing Wage Law

The PWL requires contractors to pay workers union-scale prevailing wages on “public works,” which means construction work paid for in whole or in part out of public funds. But in many cases, knowing whether a project is public works is difficult. The State Department of Industrial Relations even claimed that billboards that displayed ads paid for by public entities were public works. Michael has represented landowners, developers, and out-of-home companies in a variety of negotiated and litigated PWL cases.

The Clean Water Act

The CWA combines daily penalties that can reach $75,000 with an uncertain scope and often excessive prosecutorial zeal by state and federal authorities. Moreover, the leading case in the area, Rapanos v. U.S. (2006) is a fractured decision of doubtful precedential authority. Sorting out the applicability of the CWA is often challenging, and the price of being mistaken can be very high.