Samantha Savoni

Sam Savoni focuses her practice on a variety of environmental and land use matters, including those dealing with the Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, National Historic Preservation Act, California Environmental Quality Act and associated land use and environmental protection regulations. Sam has extensive experience representing renewable energy developers, public agencies, landowners and industry organizations in matters involving federal, state and local permitting issues, land use due diligence and environmental litigation. Sam frequently provides renewable energy facilities with federal and state natural resource and wildlife law compliance advice, risk assessments, and permitting opinions. She also frequently prepares comment letters on federal environmental law rulemakings. Additionally, Sam regularly assists public agencies in developing and adhering to compliance strategies related to the California Public Records Act.

While in law school, Sam performed as Staff Editor for the University of California Irvine Law Review, served as a Legal Research and Writing Teacher’s Assistant for two semesters, was a member of the Environmental Law Society, and worked with multiple organizations providing pro bono legal assistance, including the Orange County Legal Aid Society, the Poverty Law Clinic and the UCI Environmental Law Clinic.

Sam regularly comments on news affecting endangered species issues in California and throughout the United States on the Firm’s Endangered Species Law & Policy blog.

Experience

Project Financing Support. Sam provides project financing support on regulatory and environmental/land use aspects of wind, solar, and battery energy storage system development projects to support project developers in obtaining tax equity financing. She has provided buyer-side due diligence on acquisitions of renewable energy project portfolios and individual projects.

Energy and Wildlife Action Coalition. Sam serves on Nossaman’s legal team advising a growing coalition of utility and renewable energy companies. The coalition focuses on federal wildlife laws and policies affecting construction and operation of electric power infrastructure across the United States. This role has included preparing comment letters on behalf of EWAC and regularly reporting on updates to federal wildlife laws and regulations.

Renewable Energy. Sam frequently assists renewable energy clients in preparing permitting opinions and transactional support in connection with federal, state and local natural resources and environmental issues. Sam also provides counsel to numerous wind, solar and battery energy storage developers on issues related to state and local compliance and permitting approaches.

Publications

Blog Posts

Community & Professional

Environmental Law Society, Member

Public Law Center Advocates, Member

Honors & Recognitions

Faculty Award, Lawyering Skills

Dean's Honors