KMN-LAW.COM - Key Persons

Kate M. Neiswender

Job Titles:
  • Business & Environmental Law
  • Founder and Principal of the Law Office
Kate M. Neiswender is the founder and principal of the Law Office of K.M. Neiswender, with nearly 30 years experience including highly complex legal and policy matters in the public and private sectors. Ms. Neiswender has litigated sophisticated constitutional, environmental, regulatory and business issues in the court and before administrative panels. Before obtaining certification with the California State Bar, Ms. Neiswender was a journalist, winning multiple awards for journalistic excellence in California. Using that experience, Ms. Neiswender worked in litigation and regulatory arenas from 1987 through 1999, when she became Consultant and then Chief Consultant to the California State Senate's Natural Resources and Wildlife Committee, assisting State Senator Tom Hayden in the passage of laws and budget items concerning environmental and regulatory issues. Ms. Neiswender's work with the Senate included revisions to the California Environmental Quality Act, the California Endangered Species Act, the laws regulating the Department of Fish & Game and the Department of Toxic Substances Control, among many others. Ms. Neiswender also assisted Senator Hayden with the pioneering Water Bond of 2000, which resulted in monies for watershed improvements statewide. Returning to the private sector in 2001, after term limits ended Senator Hayden's tenure in Sacramento, Ms. Neiswender again became involved in work for numerous businesses and agricultural concerns, including representation of the state's largest independent oil producer. The breadth of her experience and background provides Ms. Neiswender with a unique understanding of today's world in which government and the law exercise growing influence over business, farming, zoning, land use, and other areas of everyday life. The firm, working with colleagues with similar expertise, provides legal advice as well as strategic counsel in dealing with the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.