Experience

Barry C. Groveman is a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office and is a member of the firm’s Management Committee. Mr. Groveman directs the firm’s Public and Environmental Law practice, representing public entities and businesses. For over a decade Mr. Groveman has served as counsel to the Los Angeles Board of Education and has handled landmark cases on behalf of cities and water districts seeking cleanup and damages for water pollution, including threshold cases involving the gasoline additive “MTBE" and “Perchlorate,” a contaminant typically found in explosives. Mr. Groveman represents cities, school districts and water districts throughout California. He was recently appointed by a member of the California State Senate to head the Inland Empire Perchlorate Task Force, a multi-agency effort charged with pursuing polluters and restoring the water supply that is contaminated with a Cold War pollutant affecting hundreds of thousands of people in San Bernardino County.

Mr. Groveman was an Assistant Los Angeles City Attorney, chief of the Environmental Protection Division where he served as environmental counsel for city commissions and departments, including the Department of Public Works, the Los Angeles City Council, and the Mayor of Los Angeles (1979-1984). In 1981 he founded and was in charge of the Los Angeles Toxic Waste Strike Force. In 1984 Mr. Groveman was appointed Special Assistant District Attorney, Head of the Environmental Crimes/OSHA Division. In 1986 Mr. Groveman was the principal co-author of Proposition 65, the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 and later campaigned for its successful passage. Mr. Groveman has also participated in the drafting of local ordinances and state statutes involving environmental law, including language in the Health & Safety Code. Mr. Groveman has served on the faculty of Southwestern University School of Law as adjunct professor of environmental law. He is founder and past chairman of the Los Angeles County Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section.

Education

• University of Wisconsin, B.A., 1975
• Southwestern Law School, J.D., 1978

Bar Admissions

• State Bar of California