Michael G. Colantuono is a shareholder in
Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, a municipal law firm with
offices in Los Angeles and Grass Valley. He graduated magna cum
laude from Harvard College with a degree in government and
received his law degree from the Boalt Hall School of Law of the
University of California at Berkeley. Chief Justice Ronald M.
George presented him with the 2010 Public Lawyer of the Year
Award on behalf of the California State Bar Association. The Los
Angeles Daily Journal named him one of California’s Top
Municipal Lawyers every year since 2011. He is former treasurer
and present trustee of the State Bar of California, the agency
responsible for regulating the practice of law in the state. The
State Bar has certified Michael as an appellate specialist and
he is a member of the California Academy of Appellate Lawyers, a
prestigious association of fewer than 100 of California’s
most distinguished appellate advocates.
Michael is one of California’s leading experts on municipal
revenues and has appeared in all six Courts of Appeal in
California. In addition, he has argued five public finance cases
in the California Supreme Court since 2004 and helped brief two
others. He will argue three more in the coming year. He served
on the committee that drafted the League of California Cities
Proposition 218 Implementation Guide and chaired the
subcommittee that drafted what became the Proposition 218
Omnibus Implementation Act of 1997. He also chaired the League
Committee that drafted the Proposition 26 Implementation Guide
and is now handling some of the first appeals under that
measure. He also serves as special counsel to counties, cities
and special districts around California.
Michael is a past president of the City Attorneys Department of
the League of California Cities and established its first Ethics
Committee. He served on the Commission on Local Governance in
the 21st Century, the recommendations of which led to
substantial revisions of the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local
Government Reorganization Act. Michael is General Counsel of the
Calaveras and San Diego LAFCOs and serves as outside counsel to
the Nevada, Orange, and Yolo County LAFCOs.
He frequently posts comments on local government and municipal
finance topics to Twitter
( @MColantuono ) and LinkedIn ( Michael Colantuono ).
