Overview
Willis Hon focuses on serving water industry clients across California on a broad range of administrative and regulatory matters. He has extensive experience before the California Public Utilities Commission where he has participated in a number of ratesetting, adjudicatory, and rulemaking proceedings on behalf of water utility companies, industry associations, and regional transportation agencies. He also provides legal counseling and governance advice to public agencies on regulatory compliance issues, including matters relating to the Brown Act and public procurement laws.
Willis has written and presented on climate change resilience and adaptation matters, with a particular expertise on recent legislation addressing wildfire risks and the doctrine of inverse condemnation. He also has experience representing clients in federal court and before administrative agencies on environmental law matters involving the Clean Water Act and local air quality regulations.
Prior to joining Nossaman, Willis was an associate at a boutique environmental law firm in New York City, where he worked on federal and state environmental litigation and advised clients in regulatory investigations. He also served as a law clerk with the U.S. Department of Justice, Environment and Natural Resources Division, Law and Policy Section.
Experience
Experience
San Francisco County Transportation Authority. Member of team that serves as General Counsel to the Authority, which administers and oversees the delivery of the local transportation sales tax program to fund major transportation infrastructure projects.
Rainbow Municipal Water District. Member of team that serves as General Counsel to this municipal water district on all aspects of its operations involving the delivery of water and sewer services to an 80 square mile area in Northeast San Diego County. Willis has advised the District on public agency policies, new legislation and on Clean Water Act compliance.
Rincon Del Diablo Municipal Water District. Member of team that serves as General Counsel to this special district providing water, sewer, recycled water and fire protection services to the cities of Escondido, San Marcos, San Diego and various unincorporated areas of San Diego County. Willis has provided on contractual disputes with vendors, grant procurement procedures and Brown Act procedures.
Olivenhain Municipal Water District. Member of team that serves as General Counsel to this municipal water district on all aspects of its operations, including the provision of water, wastewater services, recycled water, hydroelectricity and operation of the Elfin Forest recreational reserve. Willis has advised the District on new and pending legislation, Board policies, competitive procurement requirements, water quality issues and contractual matters.
Diablo Canyon Independent Safety Committee. Serves as special regulatory counsel for independent committee created by the California Public Utilities Commission to provide oversight on safety matters at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant owned and operated by Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Provides advice on regulatory developments before the California Public Utilities Commission and the California Energy Commission. Acts as liaison for the committee with Energy Division staff at the California Public Utilities Commission.
California Water Association. Represents the statewide association of investor-owned water utilities regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission and the State Water Resources Control Board in proceedings relevant to low-income programs, affordability issues and other policy matters impacting the delivery of safe, reliable water service at reasonable rates.
Water Utility Companies. Represents multiple water utility companies in California in adjudicatory and rate setting matters (including general rate cases and cost of capital proceedings) and provides counseling on novel issues affecting public utility service from new legislation.
Automobile Parts Yard. Member of team that represents a client that sells used automobile parts in a federal court citizen action suit involving claims under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and common law environment tort claims relating to allegations of groundwater contamination.
Solvent Recycling Facility. Member of team that represents a client that operates a solvent recycling and resource recovery facility in a hazardous waste enforcement action by the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC).
Manufacturing Company. Member of team that represented client in an Order of Abatement hearing before the South Coast Air Quality Management District regarding air emissions and in a Clean Water Act citizen suit relating to allegations of stormwater pollution.
City of Oakland. Serves as special counsel to the City advising with respect to remediation of hazardous materials found in City waterways. In this capacity, Nossaman has advised the City in response to enforcement actions by the regional water board and assisted in negotiation of cost-sharing agreements with other potentially responsible parties, including Union Pacific Railroad.
County of Stanislaus. Represents and advises the County on environmental remediation activities associated with Phase 1 of its North County Corridor highway project. Willis has negotiated and worked with counsel for California Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC), the regional water board and the United States Environmental Protection Agency over the remediation of the former United States Army Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant, through which the North County Corridor project will run.
Veolia. Represented client in an enforcement action brought by DTSC for alleged Hazardous Waste Control Law permit violations at client’s commercial oil and solvent recycling facility over several years. Negotiating with the California Attorney General’s office representing the agency, Nossaman was able to reach and execute a consent judgment to resolve the alleged violations. The consent judgment also included a re-classification of alleged violations that enabled the client to improve its DTSC Violations Scoring Procedure (VSP) score for that facility, bringing it back into the “acceptable” compliance tier and avoiding additional auditing requirements that may otherwise have been applied.
Insights
Publications
- 03.04.2025 | Nossaman eAlert
- 06.06.2024 | Law360
- 05.01.2024 | Nossaman Periodical
- 04.23.2024 | Nossaman eAlert
- 04.22.2024 | Nossaman eAlert
- 04.10.2024 | Nossaman eAlert
- 05.23.2023 | Nossaman eAlert
- 04.01.2023 | Nossaman Periodical
- 03.15.2023 | Nossaman eAlert
- 03.17.2021 | Daily Journal
- 12.17.2020 | Nossaman eAlert
- 11.19.2020 | Daily Journal
- 08.18.2020 | Daily Journal
- 08.05.2020 | Law360
- 08.01.2020 | Chambers Alternative Energy & Power 2020 Guide
- 02.10.2020 | Nossaman eAlert
- 11.07.2019 | Daily Journal
- 08.16.2019 | Nossaman eAlert
- 07.12.2019 | Nossaman eAlert
- 06.11.2019 | Nossaman eAlert
- 06.11.2019 | Daily Journal
- 05.30.2019 | Nossaman eAlert
- 04.17.2019 | Nossaman eAlert
- 01.14.2019 | Nossaman eAlert
- 09.24.2018 | Nossaman eAlert
Blog Posts
- 02.27.2025 | California Water Views
- 08.08.2024 | California Water Views
- 07.10.2024 | California Water Views
- 06.13.2024 | California Water Views
- 05.30.2024 | California Water Views
- 10.03.2023 | California Water Views
- 04.01.2023 | Eminent Domain Report
- 12.07.2021 | Eminent Domain Report
- 10.28.2021 | California Water Views
- 07.22.2021 | California Water Views
- 04.03.2021 | Eminent Domain Report
- 03.12.2021 | California Water Views
- 03.02.2021 | California Water Views
- 02.23.2021 | California Water Views
- 12.17.2020 | California Water Views
- 11.19.2020 | California Water Views
- 10.23.2020 | California Water Views
- 10.16.2020 | California Water Views
- 07.31.2020 | California Water Views
- 07.02.2020 | Eminent Domain Report
- 06.12.2020 | Eminent Domain Report
- 04.09.2020 | Eminent Domain Report
- 03.30.2020 | California Water Views
- 03.10.2020 | California Water Views
- 02.28.2020 | California Water Views
- 02.10.2020 | California Water Views
- 02.04.2020 | Eminent Domain Report
- 12.02.2019 | Eminent Domain Report
- 11.21.2019 | Eminent Domain Report
- 06.07.2019 | Eminent Domain Report
Speaking Engagements
- Water Leadership Group Webinar07.25.2024
- Nossaman's 2021 Water Webinar Series03.23.2021
- 2020 American Association of Professional Landmen Annual Meeting06.18.2020
- Young Utility Lawyers' Section of Conference of California Public Utilities Counsel (CCPUC) 2020 Summer Virtual Practice and Procedure CLE06.17.2020
- Nossaman's 2020 Water Webinar Series02.26.2020
- Association of California Water Agencies 2019 Fall Conference & Exhibition12.04.2019
- Nossaman's 2019 Water Webinar Series10.30.2019
- Joint Nossaman/Environmental Law Institute (ELI) Live Webinar10.08.2019
- Joint Nossaman/Environmental Law Institute (ELI) Live Webinar06.12.2019
- International Right of Way Association/Nossaman Webinar05.15.2019
- Nossaman's 2019 Water Webinar Series02.28.2019
News
- 08.15.2024 | Best Lawyers
- 07.12.2024 | Law.com
- 07.10.2024 | Daily Journal
- 08.17.2023 | Best Lawyers
- 08.18.2022 | Best Lawyers
- 01.20.2022 | Nossaman News Release
- 01.04.2021 | Daily Journal
- 09.24.2020 | Nossaman Announcement
- 08.20.2020 | Best Lawyers in America
Organizations
Community & Professional
Asian American Bar Association
California Minority Counsel Program
Water Education Foundation, Water Leaders Program, 2020
Conference of California Public Utility Counsel, Board of Directors, 2024-2027 & Treasurer, 2025
Conference of California Public Utility Counsel – Young Utilities Lawyers section, Co-Chair, 2020-2022
Bar Association of San Francisco
Honors
Honors & Recognitions
Included in Best Lawyers: Ones To Watch for Administrative/Regulatory Law, 2021-2025
- Columbia Law School, J.D., 2014
- University of California, Berkeley, B.S., 2010, with honors
- California
- New York
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York