Scott Williams

Partner

williamsMr. Williams has devoted his entire legal career to the goal of achieving social and economic justice through the law.  Immediately after graduation from Stanford University, he worked as a paralegal with a legal services organization serving poor persons in East Palo Alto.  During law school, he was continuously employed providing legal representation to low-income persons in South Boston.  Upon graduation from law school in 1974, he was awarded a Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship, the aim of which was to encourage attorneys to provide assistance to those traditionally without access to lawyers.  The Fellowship sent him to Charlottesville, Virginia, where he was admitted to the bar in 1974.  His work there focused on civil rights, access to affordable housing, public utility rate reform, and complex litigation.

In 1981, Mr. Williams returned to California and became the Director of Litigation of a legal services program in Fresno.  In 1997, Mr. Williams began an affiliation with his current partners, working on select Indian law employment and litigation matters.

Mr. Williams has an extensive background in complex litigation.  He represents tribes and tribal organizations in water rights and natural resources, cultural site protection, and governmental affairs.     Illustrative work includes representation of a Tribe in negotiating agreements to remove dams and restore the Klamath River in California and Oregon, protection of Tribal access to significant off-reservation cultural sites, and protection of water resources in California, New Mexico, and Colorado