CPD Training (UK) Limited

Gene Tanaka is a partner in the Municipal & Redevelopment Law practice group and the managing partner of Best Best & Krieger LLP’s Walnut Creek and Sacramento offices. Gene’s practice is focused on Municipal Law litigation.

Gene has litigated many land use cases involving challenges regarding the California Environmental Quality Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Federal Endangered Species Act, California Endangered Species Act, California Radiation Control, Federal land Policy and Management Act and inverse condemnation. He has worked for the City of Needles, San Bernardino County LAFCO, the Riverside County Habitat Conservation Agency, the Rancho California Water District, the Riverside County Transportation Commission, the County of Riverside and numerous other public agencies. Gene handled the successful Los Angeles Superior Court challenge to the Ward Valley Low Level Radioactive Waste Facility.

Gene has also represented clients in toxics cases for cleanup or damages under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, nuisance law and trespass law. He has worked on the Stringfellow cleanup litigation in US District Court, the Montrose case in US District Court involving cleanup of contaminants in the Pacific Ocean and a Republic Imperial Acquisition Corporation landfill.

Gene graduated from Columbia Law School in 1981 and from Columbia College in 1978. Gene has taught the hazardous materials litigation course for the University of California at Riverside Extension School. He has also published articles regarding land use and toxics litigation.

Since the late 1980s, Gene has been an instructor and/or assistant team leader for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy in its training programs for trial skills, deposition skills and teacher training in California, Colorado, Iowa and Arizona. In addition, he has taught trial skills in Osaka, Japan, and Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Gene was a member of CPD Training's team at the Tasmanian Advocacy Convention in November 2012.