Chris Frahm Email & Phone Number

Law, politics and business converge around nearly every issue concerning water and infrastructure. Chris practices at that intersection, coordinating and strategically engaging lobbying services at the state and local level to help her clients secure new water supplies or better manage existing ones. She is known for her success in getting water and infrastructure projects done, from initial strategic planning to environmental litigation to historic agreements.Chris assists her clients in navigating the many institutional and political challenges to the development of reliable water supplies and water-related infrastructure in what continues to be a challenging economy and historic period of change in California water law. She works closely with key policy leaders and decision-makers in legislative and policy arenas to develop and implement public policy based solutions that will meet her clients’ water supply and infrastructure needs and mitigate risk in a changing political, financial and legal landscape.Chris knows the near- and long-term implications of water matters from experience. As the chair of the board of the San Diego County Water Authority, she represented San Diego for more than a decade, navigating numerous political challenges related to natural resources, strategy and planning. During that time she also served as chairwoman of the water policy, finance and imported water committees of the board. She also represented the San Diego region on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, where she served as Vice Chairwoman of the Board, chaired the water policy and audit committees and served as vice-chair of the engineering and operations committee of the board.

Listed skills include Policy, Water, Legislative Relations, Public Policy, and 18 others.

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  Shareholder

  Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck

  Jan 2006 - Present - San Diego, California, United States

  The head of Brownstein’s San Diego office, Chris is a frequent speaker on the subjects of water reliability and rates, water distribution system access, level playing field for utilities, and other current water law and public policy issues.WaterChris’ deep understanding of water issues and politics within the natural resources industry has been an asset to clients for several decades. She serves as special counsel and provides lobbying services for municipalities, utilities, private corporations, public agencies and associations on water supply and infrastructure development projects, groundwater, infrastructure and other regulatory issues. Most recently, Chris represented San Diego County Water Authority in their prevailing rate case victory against the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. After five years in court, a judge ruled that the MWD owed the Authority $188.3 million plus interest for four years of overcharging.InfrastructureChris’ practice experience includes strategic planning, transactional counseling, negotiation and lobbying efforts on significant water-related and other infrastructure issues. She was a principal architect of the historic San Diego-IID water conservation and transfer agreement, which ultimately became the foundation of California’s Quantification Settlement Agreement and 4.4 Plan. That Agreement also included an Exchange Agreement with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for transportation of water, and, $235 million state funding of Colorado River works. Chris was also principal negotiator of a Framework resolution of longstanding controversies over groundwater management in the Central and West Basin areas of Los Angeles. Working with environmental groups and other stakeholders, she negotiated historic water conservation recommendations for presentation to the California Public Utilities Commission.