News & Publications

Nielsen Merksamer is pleased to announce that the publication Sacramento magazine selected Chris Skinnell for inclusion in its list of Top Lawyers of 2015. Attorneys were selected for inclusion on the list through a survey of Sacramento-area attorneys conducted for Sacramento magazine by Professional Research Services.

Nielsen Merksamer is pleased to announce that Martindale-Hubbell® has named Nielsen Merksamer as one of its Top Ranked Law Firms in California for 2015.  Top Ranked Law Firms are those firms headquartered in the state with 10 or more attorneys, in which at least one out of five of their lawyers achieved the AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Ratingˢͫ.  This rating indicates the rated lawyer has been deemed by his or her peers to have demonstrated the highest level of ethical standards and legal ability.  Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Ratings are driven by the confidential opinions of lawyers and members of the judiciary who provide reviews of lawyers about whom they have professional knowledge.

Every term of the United States Supreme Court sees a number of blockbuster decisions, but few are as significant as the one just completed.  As a result, the biggest of the big – landmark rulings on marriage equality, the Affordable Care Act, regulation of greenhouse cases, and housing discrimination – have somewhat overshadowed other significant decisions with significant implications for elections, free speech, voting rights and property rights. Some of the key “overshadowed” decisions from the final two months of the term include:

Nielsen Merksamer is pleased to announce that the publication The Best Lawyers in America© selected Steve Merksamer for inclusion in the 2015 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, an honor he has received every year since 2008.  Merksamer was chosen through an exhaustive and rigorous peer-review survey in which thousands of leading lawyers confidentially evaluated their professional peers.

Nielsen Merksamer is pleased to announce that Steve Merksamer has been named a Northern California Super Lawyer and Chris Skinnell was named a Northern California Rising Star for 2015.  The lists recognize leading attorneys in the State.  This is Merksamer’s fifth time being selected as a Super Lawyer, having been chosen previously in 2009-2012; it is Skinnell’s third time being selected as Rising Star, having been previously selected in 2013 and 2014.

On April 6, 2015, Nielsen Merksamer voting rights and initiative law partner Chris Skinnell moderated a panel hosted by the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College regarding the Supreme Court’s pending decision in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission and its potential implications for redistricting reform and direct democracy.

A record number of federal, state and local regulators came together recently in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for the 36^th annual conference of the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (“COGEL”).

Nonprofit groups that solicit for, or make, California campaign contributions or expenditures will now be required to disclose certain donors.

This summer, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a long-planned ordinance amending local lobby disclosure requirements.

Governor Brown signed and vetoed a flurry of political reform bills on September 30, the last day he could act on measures during the 2014 regular legislative session.