About

Brett is a partner in the firm’s Water Law and Special Districts Department. His practice is focused on complex litigation, writs, and appeals. He represents the firm’s public agency clients and others in a broad variety of litigation matters, including water rights cases, CEQA challenges, validation actions, Prop 218/26 challenges, eminent domain actions, federal takings cases, public nuisance cases, and proceedings before the State Water Resources Control Board. In addition to proceedings in state and federal trial courts and administrative agencies, he has experience in the state and federal appellate courts and is available to serve as appellate counsel in a wide variety of matters.

He also serves as General Counsel to several public water agencies, providing advice on surface water and groundwater rights, groundwater management (including SGMA), reclamation law, water quality (including the Clean Water Act and Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act), water service administration, and water transfers. His general counsel work also includes advising on the full range of public law issues, such as the Brown Act, the Public Records Act, conflicts of interest, assessments and fees under Prop 218/26, compliance with CEQA/NEPA, landowner voting elections, government contracts, and other compliance issues.

In addition to practicing law, Brett has served as an adjunct professor of law at Trinity Law School in Santa Ana and a volunteer judge for various moot court competitions. He graduated in 2014 from the Pepperdine University School of Law, where he was editor-in-chief of the Pepperdine Law Review.

Education
  • J.D., magna cum laude, Pepperdine University School of Law, 2014
  • B.A., Anthropology, magna cum laude, Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University, 2010
Professional Associations
Community Involvement
Awards
  • Order of the Coif, 2014
  • Balfour Scholarship, Phi Delta Phi, 2013
  • Hagman Scholar, UCLA Extension, 2013
  • Bakersfield Life Magazine’s “20 Under 40 People to Watch,” 2021
Publications
  • Association of California Water Agencies, Summary of Appellate Cases Decided by the Courts in 2019-2020 (Editor, Transparency and Ethics)
  • Association of California Water Agencies, Summary of Appellate Cases Decided by the Courts in 2018-2019 (Editor, Transparency and Ethics)
  • Brett A. Stroud, Preserving Home Rule: The Text, Purpose, and Political Theory of California’s Municipal Affairs Clause, 41 Pepp. L. Rev. 3 (2014)