David J. Larsen

Position: General Practitioner

Experience: 40+ Years

Location: 5179 Lone Tree Way Antioch, CA 94531

Email: dave@dlarsenlaw.com

Phone: (925) 331-8124

Profile

Accomplished general practitioner with 40 + years of experience, including negotiations, litigation, arbitration, mediation and administrative hearings and appeals – a collaborative & creative problem solver. 

Education

Law Offices of David J. Larsen (Solo Practitioner) 

Principal      2005 – present

• General Civil Practitioner – Assists individual clients with a variety of civil issues including: estate planning (i.e. trusts, wills, litigation support); real estate and land use matters; civil rights disputes, problems with city hall; the purchase and sale of commercial and private properties; business formations and dissolutions; wrongful foreclosures and issues with your homeowner’s association.

• General Counsel for BIMID –  Serves as general counsel for the Bethel Island Municipal Improvement District which maintains levees among other things around Bethel Island. 

• Past Isleton City Manager / City Attorney –  Served as Isleton’s City Attorney for four (4) years and also City Manager for part of that time.  

• Past Loomis City Attorney – Served as City Attorney for the Town of Loomis for eleven years.  

• Past Hearing Officer – Served as hearing officer for the cities of Alameda, Pleasanton and San Ramon.  

Berding & Weil, LLP

Of Counsel      1997 – 2005 (Also City Attorney for the Town of Loomis)

• Special counsel for the City of Dixon
• Handled disputes with cities, counties and the State (including the Coastal Commission)
• Handled a variety of HOA issues including member disputes and CC&R interpretations.

In-house City Attorney Positions    

City Attorney

Responsible for a host of duties over time involving virtually all facets of municipal law: advisor to a variety of departments (planning, redevelopment, police, personnel, public works, etc.), rent review boards, planning commissions and city councils; municipal litigator and problem solver.     

• 1994 – 1997. Milpitas City Attorney           

• 1988 – 1993. Pleasant Hill City Attorney    

• 1983 – 1988. Oxnard Assistant City Attorney 

• 1980 – 1983. Merced Deputy City Attorney 

Special Emphasis

• Drafted a city-wide initiative for the City of Antioch
• Laid groundwork for an Indian Casino on behalf of city client
• Drafted a medical marijuana ordinance for a city client
• Supervised environmental litigation for a city client challenging development in adjacent jurisdictions
• Coordinated legal work to convert Ford plant to Great Mall of Bay Area
• Drafted two amicus curiae land use briefs on behalf of more than 100 cities
• Participated in League Panel on Racial and Sexual Bias in the Workplace 

Representative Clients

Representative clients have included: a number of individual clients with problems ranging from major to minor (including a number of pro bono clients); a Hall-of-Fame basketball player; a number of homeowner associations including Blackhawk and Rossmoor; companies including Marriot, Habitat for Humanity, Delco Builders, DiDonato, Corrie and DG&H; churches including Peace Lutheran in Danville and Resurrection Lutheran in Oakland;  and the cities of Alameda, Danville, Dixon, Pleasanton, San Mateo and San Ramon in addition to Milpitas, Pleasant Hill, Oxnard, Merced, Isleton and Loomis.

Pre-Law Work

During Dave’s undergraduate years, he worked during the school year as a teacher’s aide at Ravenswood High School in East Palo Alto in English, Social Studies, Track, Football, Woodshop, Music and Drama; and during his summers, as a guide and eventually director of the Sierra Wilderness Program, which was an interracial backpacking program located in East Palo Alto.  During his graduate year, (in which he received a Masters in Education and Life Teaching Credential), Dave was a student-teacher at Irvington High School in Fremont.  After graduation but before law school, Dave worked three years (3) as the “minority recruiter” at the oldest black land-grant college in the nation – Alcorn State University – in Lorman, Mississippi.    

Community Involvement

Rotary (past-president), Paul Harris Fellow, Museum of the SRV, Leadership SR, SRV Education Foundation – – initiated school district effort to better address special education needs.