Dwayne P. McKenzie
Partner
Dwayne McKenzie is the managing partner at Cox, Castle & Nicholson (CCN) and has a diverse practice that has grown to meet the needs of a wide variety of real estate and construction industry clients in traditional labor relations, employment law, ERISA matters, and litigation in state and federal courts. He represents owners, public agencies, developers, contractor trade associations, and employers in traditional labor relations, in their industry-wide master labor agreement negotiations, and in legislative matters. Mr. McKenzie negotiates project labor agreements on behalf of owners and developers. He also provides ongoing representation for owners, developers, contractors, and contractor trade associations in managing relationships and resolving disputes with individual unions and building trades union councils. Mr. McKenzie has also been involved extensively in prevailing wage law legislation, interpretation, and litigation for over 20 years. He is active in public works, prevailing wage, skilled and trained workforce, and related labor-related issues. Mr. McKenzie regularly represents developer, contractor, and property owner trade associations and individual developers and contractors before the Department of Industrial Relations and in the courts. He also represents employers across various industries in a wide range of litigation, including class action claims; wage and hour violations; wrongful termination; sex, race, religious, and other forms of discrimination; sexual harassment; unfair competition; trade secret infringement; breach of contract; company founder and director liability; and various other employment, and business-related issues. Mr. McKenzie routinely defends employers against charges brought before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. Mr. McKenzie further counsels employers in their day-to-day activities, such as managing and negotiating employment issues in merger and acquisition transactions; negotiating employment and severance contracts; establishing and maintaining employment policies and documents; responding to employee claims of violations of state and federal law; and advising on risk management issues.
Ira Jeffrey Waldman
Partner
Ira Waldman has worked on sophisticated real estate finance, workout, and loan enforcement matters since he graduated from law school in 1976 and continues to provide such services. He also has developed an expertise in ground lease development transactions and is in high demand to represent clients on the landlord, tenant, or lender side of a transaction. Mr. Waldman also is the long standing chair of the Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP Opinion Committee and serves on various national bar association opinion committees. Mr. Waldman graduated from Bates College in 1973 with a BA in Government and from the University of Maine School of Law in 1976. He commenced his career as an in-house real estate lawyer at UNUM in Portland, Maine and joined Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP in January, 1981. Mr. Waldman is an experienced real estate finance and development lawyer with particular expertise in secured real estate finance and ground lease development transactions. Mr. Waldman is a co-author of the Legal Opinions Chapter in the CEB Book on California Real Estate Finance Practice: Strategies and Forms and the Rent, Expense Allocations, Security Deposits, and Other Payments in the CEB Book on Ground Lease Practice. Among many other professional activities, he is a past chair of the Los Angeles County Bar Association Real Property Section and a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, where he has been the long time chair of the Public Policy Committee and current co-chair of the Climate Impact Affinity Group. Mr. Waldman is also a member of the Joint Editorial Board for Uniform State Acts and in such role has participated in many Uniform Law Commission drafting committees of a variety of real estate acts.
Linda C. Klein
Partner
Linda Klein is a California land use attorney, and a California Environmental Quality Act expert. She navigates complex regulatory challenges facing development projects, guiding clients' projects from acquisition to entitlement approvals and, if necessary, defending the entitlements in trial and appellate courts. Specializing in housing and mixed-use developments in urban and suburban Bay Area locations, Ms. Klein stays attuned to California's rapidly changing housing laws. She helps clients strategize how to best use the law to maximize a site's development potential while minimizing entitlement delay. Ms. Klein attended the UCLA School of Law, where she graduated Order of the Coif. Prior to that, she earned a Master of Architecture from Yale School of Architecture, and a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Rice University. Ms. Klein is the co-author of “Practice Under the California Environmental Quality Act.” She also regularly speaks about land use issues at organizations around the state.
Michael Herman Zischke
Partner
Michael Zischke specializes in land use and environmental compliance and litigation, in particular, impact reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act and National Environmental Policy Act. He has writ and appellate litigation experience throughout the state in trial courts, Courts of Appeal, and California Supreme Court. Mr. Zischke represents both public agency and private clients, and has substantial experience in climate change and greenhouse gas emission issues. Educational & Employment History • BA in Government from Dartmouth College (1977) • J.D. from Berkeley Law (formerly Boalt Hall) (1982) • Legislative Assistant for energy and environmental matters to Congressman Bob Carr (D-Michigan, 1977-1979) • Land use practice at Miller, Starr & Regalia (since 1982) • McCutchen Doyle Brown & Enerson; Landels Ripley & Diamond; Morrison & Foerster; and Cox Castle & Nicholson (since 2007) • Former land use practice Chair at Landels, MoFo, and Cox Castle Achievement & Other Notable Experience • Co-author of CEB treatise Practice Under the California Environmental Quality Act, first and second editions, and annual updates through 2021 • Author and co-author of various other books and articles on land use, ballot measures, and subdivisions • Founding member of the board for Center for Law Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law
Kenneth B. Bley
Partner
Kenneth Bley represents developers in obtaining land use approvals and then frequently has to defend the approvals against CEQA and planning and zoning challenges in both trial and appellate courts. He also represents landowners in eminent domain proceedings. Educational & Employment History • BS and MS from Cal Berkeley and PhD from UCLA, all in guidance and control of missiles and spacecraft • J.D. from Harvard • Over 50 trials and over 30 appeals, including four arguments before the California Supreme Court Mr. Bley has served as a reviewer of the litigation section of the CEB treatise on CEQA, and an author on exactions in the CEB treatise on land use. He has lectured widely to judges and attorneys on land use and authored a paper on the use of the federal Civil Rights Act in land use litigation. Finally, he taught remedies for ten years and land use for 15 years at the USC Gould School of Law.
