Our Team
Chris Beale
Attorney. Chris Beale works on complex natural resource management issues, including the integration of natural resources management and economic development. He advises cities, counties, and other public agencies and private landowners regarding state and federal natural resource protection laws, conservation planning, and open-space preservation. He is currently advising the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California regarding the development of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan; advising Placer County regarding the implementation of the Placer County Open-Space and Agricultural Conservation Program; and advising the Mendocino Redwood Company regarding the development of its innovative habitat conservation plan and natural community conservation plan. Previously, he was legal counsel to the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), where he helped to develop numerous habitat conservation plans and natural community conservation plans throughout California.
Corey Brown
Attorney. Corey Brown primarily serves as a strategic policy and legal consultant to the philanthropic efforts of RLG, including the California Coastal and Marine Initiative and Preserving Wild California Program, as well as other philanthropic projects. Before joining Resources Law Group, Mr. Brown served as Executive Director of The Big Sur Land Trust, Government Affairs Director for The Trust for Public Land (Western Region), General Counsel for the Planning and Conservation League, Legal Counsel for Friends of the River, and as an Assembly Fellow with the California State Legislature. He also served as an adjunct professor at the McGeorge School of Law where he taught “Legislation and the Law of Politics” and as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of California at Davis where he taught “Environmental Politics and Administration.”
Carolyn Chamberlain (back to top)
Financial Analyst. Carolyn Chamberlain analyzes and develops proposals and recommendations regarding conservation finance strategies and mechanisms. She joined Resources Law Group in May 2004, bringing more than twenty years of expertise in finance and conservation philanthropy. After receiving an MBA from the Anderson School at University of California, Los Angeles, Ms. Chamberlain worked for fifteen years at Wells Fargo Bank, Union Bank, and U.S. Trust Company, responsible for the underwriting of commercial loans to corporations and high net worth individuals. During the past nine years, Ms. Chamberlain has been Director of Corporate Development for the Anderson School, Associate Director of Philanthropy for The Nature Conservancy’s California Program, and Director of Philanthropy for the Sacramento Region Community Foundation.
Jaclyn Conklin (back to top)
Program Manager. Jaclyn Conklin provides coordination, research, and implementation support for the ocean, coasts, and fisheries programs. Ms. Conklin comes to Resources Law Group with engineering and private sector consulting experience. Most recently, she conducted research at the University of California, Davis under the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) initiative to develop safer methods of deterring bird nesting on highway structures. Prior, she worked as a business management consultant with Ernst & Young, LLP (now Capgemini) in North and South America. In the 1990s, she worked with EnStar Energy Group, Inc. to assist green-energy clients in leveraging opportunities that arose from Michigan's energy deregulation. She also worked in Costa Rica with E.A.R.T.H. University designing sustainable post-harvest technologies for teaching and extension purposes. Ms. Conklin is an active member of the American Society of Biological and Agricultural Engineers (ASABE) and she obtained her M.S. in Biological Systems Engineering at the University of California, Davis, where she specialized in applications of bio-instrumentation in ecological systems.
Richard Frank (back to top)
Attorney. Mr. Frank's practice focuses on complex natural resources law and policy issues as well as strategic conservation philanthropy. Mr. Frank comes to Resources Law Group following a 33-year career in public law practice, the majority of that time with the California Department of Justice. Most recently, he served as the Department’s Chief Deputy Attorney General for Legal Affairs, overseeing all legal work of the Department and supervising its 1100 lawyers. For most of his career, Mr. Frank specialized in environmental, land use and energy law, practicing in state and federal trial and appellate courts. In addition to his current duties with the Resources Law Group, Mr. Frank currently serves as the Executive Director of the California Center for Environmental Law & Policy and as a Lecturer in Residence at the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Law.
Mark Kleinman (back to top)
Program Manager. Mark Kleinman helps manage the Preserving Wild California Program. He also provides coordination, research, analysis, strategy development, writing, and editing on other philanthropic projects. He brings more than 20 years of experience in research, writing, and strategic and communications planning to his work at RLG. A Ph.D. in American cultural history, he was a visiting lecturer in history at UC San Diego, and was a tenured professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, publishing a book, articles, and essays on American politics, political culture, and foreign policy. After leaving academia to return to California, he worked as a marketing communications strategist and planner in Sacramento, developing strategic communications plans, campaigns, and projects for a broad range of corporate, government, and non-profit clients, including California Community Colleges, the Sierra Nevada Alliance, The Nature Conservancy, Sacramento Air Quality Management District, California Highway Patrol, the Pacific Crest Trail Association, and CalPERS.
Shauna Manner (back to top)
Managing Director. Shauna Manner is responsible for all business operations of Resources Law Group, including human resources, marketing, technology and business planning. She received an MBA from the Graduate School of Management at University of California, Davis. Actively involved in the Sacramento Chapter of the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA), Ms. Manner serves the Board as President-Elect. She is a Certified Legal Manager (CLM) and a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).
Michael Mantell (back to top)
Attorney. Michael Mantell works on strategic conservation philanthropy, habitat planning, and conservation finance. Mr. Mantell founded the Resources Law Group to help design and administer initiatives for philanthropic foundations and individuals, landowners, and government agencies that result in significant conservation achievements. Since the late 1990s, he has designed and participated in programs and projects that achieved extensive conservation outcomes for land and ocean resources and broadened the leadership and constituency for natural resources protection. Previously as Undersecretary for Resources for the State of California, he oversaw the $2.8 billion Resources Agency. Prior to that, he was General Counsel for the World Wildlife Fund and a Deputy City Attorney in Los Angeles. Mr. Mantell served as Campaign Chair of the recently passed Proposition 84, a $5.4 billion bond measure providing critical investments in California’s coastal, water, and land resources. Mr. Mantell is author and co-author of several books and articles, the recipient of several national conservation awards, and serves on the Board of Directors of Resources for the Future and on the Governing Council of The Wilderness Society.
Peggy McNutt (back to top)
Program Associate. Peggy McNutt develops and implements strategies and projects for the Preserving Wild California (PWC) and other philanthropic programs. Ms. McNutt worked for the Nature Conservancy for the past decade, most recently as the Managing Director of the Central Coast Region and previously as the Project Director for the Lassen Foothills Project in Northern California. Before joining The Nature Conservancy, she served as Executive Director of Delaware & Raritan Greenway, a regional land trust in New Jersey, and held several positions in New Jersey State Government, including Executive Director of the Department of the Treasury, Assistant to the Governor, Senior Research Associate for the Office of Legislative Services and Committee Aide to the Senate Revenue, Finance and Appropriations Committee. Ms. McNutt is a graduate of the California Agricultural Leadership Program.
Merswind Reyer (back to top)
Attorney. Merswind Reyer is engaged in matters relating to natural resources, environmental, land use, and local government law, as well as conservation real estate transactions. She also assists with counseling for conservation philanthropy programs, and other Resources Law Group projects. Ms. Reyer serves on the Executive Committee of the Sacramento County Bar Environmental Law Section. She has written and spoken on topics including CERCLA and Prop. 65, and was an Adjunct Professor in the McGeorge School of Law Appellate Advocacy program. Before joining RLG, Ms. Reyer was counsel at Downey Brand LLP in Sacramento, where her practice included representing clients responding to federal, state, and local environmental agency directives or enforcement, assisting with environmental due diligence and compliance issues, and negotiation and litigation of multi-party environmental disputes. Ms. Reyer received her law degree, and a certificate of completion in the area of Environmental and Natural Resources Law, from the University of Oregon School of Law.
Mary Scoonover (back to top)
Attorney. Mary Scoonover’s practice is devoted to complex natural resource management issues and conservation philanthropy. She represented the Packard, Hewlett and Moore Foundations, and Goldman Fund in the acquisition of more than 16,500 acres of salt ponds in South San Francisco Bay and Napa County. She also works on the California Coastal and Marine Initiative, and the Preserving Wild California program. Previously Ms. Scoonover was a Deputy Attorney General in the Public Rights Division of the California Department of Justice, where she helped complete the multi-party CALFED Bay-Delta Program’s plan to restore the ecosystem, improve water quality, and increase water supply reliability in the San Francisco Bay-Delta. In addition, she negotiated a settlement that will result in the restoration of 50 miles of the Lower Owens River, and represented the State in the Mono Lake hearings resulting in the restoration of tributary streams and protection of the public trust values of the lake. Ms. Scoonover represented the State of California at trial and in the appeals leading to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling affirming the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s land use regulations protecting the clarity of Lake Tahoe.
Julie Turrini (back to top)
Attorney. Julie Turrini’s transactional conservation real estate practice focuses on conservation property acquisitions, dispositions, and financings. Before joining Resources Law Group, she served as Senior Attorney for The Nature Conservancy’s California Program, where she provided legal support for all real estate acquisitions and dispositions, government and private grant and loan financings and stewardship matters relating to the Cosumnes River, Delta, and Northern Sierra Projects, and served as corporate counsel for Conservation Farms & Ranches, a California non-profit public benefit corporation affiliated with The Nature Conservancy formed to manage the California Program’s Staten Island property in San Joaquin County. Before joining The Nature Conservancy, she was a partner with various Sacramento law firms, including Murphy Austin Adams Schoenfeld LLP, Diepenbrock, Wulff, Plant & Hannegan, LLP, and MarronˇReid, LLP, where her law practice focused on commercial real estate, land conservation, low-income housing, and general corporate matters.
Michael Valentine (back to top)
Attorney. Michael Valentine works on natural resource management issues relating primarily to coastal, fisheries, and marine philanthropic programs. He oversees administration of the Sustainable Fisheries Fund and works with foundations and other philanthropic clients, government agencies, and individuals to develop conservation strategies and priorities. He previously served as General Counsel to the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) and as Chief of the Land Management Division of the California State Lands Commission (CSLC). Mr. Valentine has broad experience in natural resources law and policy including endangered species, conservation planning, regulation of fisheries, and governmental permit programs. While at CDFG he participated in major legislative revisions of the Natural Community Conservation Planning Act and of the statutes authorizing issuance of streambed alteration agreements by the State of California. He also helped negotiate, draft, and finalize the agreements and legislation necessary for completion of the Quantification Settlement Agreement for use of California’s entitlement to Colorado River water. At CSLC he was responsible for policy development and administration of California’s sovereign lands and school lands.
Michael Weber (back to top)
Program Officer. Michael Weber provides strategic advice and oversight of programs on oceans, coasts, and fisheries, including the California Coastal and Marine Initiative and the Sustainable Fisheries Fund. Most recently, Mr. Weber served as an advisor to the California Fish and Game Commission in implementation of the State’s Marine Life Management Act. Previously, he directed programs on marine protected areas, sea turtle conservation, and fisheries conservation at the Center for Marine Conservation in Washington, D.C., and worked as special assistant to the Director of the National Marine Fisheries Service in the United States Department of Commerce. As a freelance writer and research consultant specializing in marine and coastal conservation, Mr. Weber has written dozens of articles and reports on marine conservation, and advised in the production of television specials and exhibits on marine conservation. Books written or co-authored by Mr. Weber include, among others, The Wealth of Oceans (2005), From Abundance to Scarcity: A History of U.S. Marine Fisheries Policy (2002), and Fish, Markets, and Fishermen: The Economics of Overfishing (1999).
Ed Hastey (back to top)
Consultant. Ed Hastey serves as an independent consultant focusing on conservation stewardship and large-scale conservation transactions. Formerly, he served as the Director of the Bureau of Land Management in California for twenty-one years. Mr. Hastey is a recipient of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award.
Jim Sarro (back to top)
Consultant. Jim Sarro works as an attorney-consultant to RLG, providing assistance with real property transactions, including due diligence, structuring of the deal, assisting land trusts, and coordinating public funding. Jim began working with the Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) as its first land agent in 1972. He retired in 2002 as Assistant Executive Director in charge of statewide real estate acquisition activities and the supervision of its staff of nine land agents. While with WCB, Jim was directly involved with or supervised more than 2,000 separate transactions for the WCB, DFG, or their cooperating partners, providing for the acquisition of more than 750,000 acres of land for wildlife areas, ecological reserves, and open space preservation.