Directory of fellows
Richard Drury
Fellow since 2022
Oakland,
California
Region 9 serving AZ, CA, HI, NV, and certain territories
Richard Toshiyuki Drury is a partner with the Oakland-based law firm of Lozeau | Drury
LLP where he represents environmental organizations, individuals and workers in
environmental matters. Mr. Drury is a 1990 graduate of the Yale Law School, where he
received the Raphael Lempkin Prize for outstanding work in the field of international
human rights, and where he served on the editorial board for the Yale Journal of Law and
Liberation. He holds a B.S. degree in chemistry and a B.A. degree in philosophy from
the University of Illinois, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude. He
served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Thelton Henderson of the United States District
Court in San Francisco from 1990 through 1992. From 1993 to 2003 he was legal
director and attorney for Communities for a Better Environment (CBE). Prior to working
for CBE, he was an environmental law fellow at the law firm of Shute, Mihaly &
Weinberger in San Francisco. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the
Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of California from 2006 through 2009, and
was chair of the Section’s annual environmental law conference from 2007 through 2009.
Mr. Drury was the chair of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s
National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee Pollution Trading Work Group
from 1996 to 2000. Mr. Drury has been an adjunct professor of environmental law at the
University of California Berkeley School of Law (Boalt), Golden Gate University School
of Law, and New College Law School in San Francisco. Mr. Drury appeared on 60
Minutes in 2015 in a program concerning formaldehyde in certain flooring products sold
by Lumber Liquidators. Mr. Drury has received numerous awards, including the
California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) award in 2011, 2009 and 2002, the
Ecology Law Quarterly Environmental Leadership Award in 2003, and the Super Lawyer
Award (2008-2022). He has served
on the Boards of Directors of the Center on Race Poverty & the Environment,
Communities for a Better Environment, Impact Fund. Richard plays keyboards in the
Oakland Jazz Funk Project. He has been involved in numerous successful
published cases in the California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal, and
federal courts, including a successful unanimous decision against ConocoPhillips Oil
Company from the California Supreme Court
LLP where he represents environmental organizations, individuals and workers in
environmental matters. Mr. Drury is a 1990 graduate of the Yale Law School, where he
received the Raphael Lempkin Prize for outstanding work in the field of international
human rights, and where he served on the editorial board for the Yale Journal of Law and
Liberation. He holds a B.S. degree in chemistry and a B.A. degree in philosophy from
the University of Illinois, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude. He
served as a law clerk to Chief Judge Thelton Henderson of the United States District
Court in San Francisco from 1990 through 1992. From 1993 to 2003 he was legal
director and attorney for Communities for a Better Environment (CBE). Prior to working
for CBE, he was an environmental law fellow at the law firm of Shute, Mihaly &
Weinberger in San Francisco. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the
Environmental Law Section of the State Bar of California from 2006 through 2009, and
was chair of the Section’s annual environmental law conference from 2007 through 2009.
Mr. Drury was the chair of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s
National Environmental Justice Advisory Committee Pollution Trading Work Group
from 1996 to 2000. Mr. Drury has been an adjunct professor of environmental law at the
University of California Berkeley School of Law (Boalt), Golden Gate University School
of Law, and New College Law School in San Francisco. Mr. Drury appeared on 60
Minutes in 2015 in a program concerning formaldehyde in certain flooring products sold
by Lumber Liquidators. Mr. Drury has received numerous awards, including the
California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) award in 2011, 2009 and 2002, the
Ecology Law Quarterly Environmental Leadership Award in 2003, and the Super Lawyer
Award (2008-2022). He has served
on the Boards of Directors of the Center on Race Poverty & the Environment,
Communities for a Better Environment, Impact Fund. Richard plays keyboards in the
Oakland Jazz Funk Project. He has been involved in numerous successful
published cases in the California Supreme Court, California Courts of Appeal, and
federal courts, including a successful unanimous decision against ConocoPhillips Oil
Company from the California Supreme Court
Degrees
- BS - Chemistry
- BA- Philosophy
- JD
Admissions
- California
Court Admissions
- California Courts
- ND Cal
- CD Cal
- ED Cal
- 9th Circuit Court
- U.S. Supreme Court
Professional Societies and Organizations
California State Bar Environmental Law SectionOther Environmental Career Experience
Former legal director of Communities for a Better EnvironmentRepresentative Publications (not including ACOEL Blogs)
- Pollution Trading and Environmental Injustice: Los
- Angeles’ Failed Experiment in Air Quality Policy. IX Duke Environmental Law & Policy
- Forum 231. Plowshares and Swords (Beacon Press). Common Law Remedies to Environmental Problems (ELI, 2007).
Citations of Major Published Cases
- Today’s IV v. Fed. Transit Admin., 2014 WL 3827489 (C.D. Cal. 2014).
- Coalition for Clean Air v. VWR Int'l, LLC, 922 F. Supp. 2d 1089 (E.D. Cal. 2013)
- League to Save Lake Tahoe v. Tahoe Reg'l Planning Agency, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
- 65753 (E.D. Cal. July 30, 2009)
- Communities for a Better Environment v. Cenco Refining Co., 179 F.Supp.2d 1128
- (C.D.Cal. 2001), aff’d, 35 Fed.Appx. 508 (9th Cir. 2002)
- Communities for a Better Environment v. Cenco Refining Co., 180 F.Supp.2d 1062
- (C.D.Cal. 2001)
- Bayview Hunters Point Community Adv. v. Metropolitan Transp. Comm’n, 212
- F.Supp.2d 1156 (N.D.Cal. 2002), rev’d, 366 F.3d 692 (9 th Cir. 2004)
- Bayview Hunters Point Community Adv. v. Metropolitan Transp. Comm’n, 177
- F.Supp.2d 1011 (N.D.Cal. 2001)
- Coalition for Clean Air v. South Coast Air Quality Management Dist., 1999
- U.S.Dist.LEXIS 16106 (C.D.Cal. 1999)
- STATE COURT
- Communities for a Better Environment v. South Coast Air Quality Management District
- (ConocoPhillips Company), 48 Cal. 4th 310 (2010)
- Covington v. Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control Dist., 43 Cal. App. 5th 867, 256
- (2019)
- Parker Shattuck Neighbors v. Berkeley City Council, 222 Cal. App. 4th 768 (2013)
- Coalition for Clean Air v. Visalia (VWR Int’l), 209 Cal. App. 4th 408 (2012)
- Center for Self-Improvement & Community Development v. Lennar Corp., 173 Cal. App.
- 4th 1543 (2009)
- Plastic Pipe and Fittings Assoc. v. California Building Standards Comm. 124 Cal. App.
- 4th 1390 (2004)
- Communities for a Better Environment v. California Resources Agency, 103 Cal.App.4th
- 98 (3rd Dist., 2002)