Aaron was born in San Diego. He received his B.A. from UC Berkeley and his M.A. from the University of Chicago. Aaron first found his interest in water law and policy, as have so many others, in the pages of Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert.  After practicing water law for two years at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, in Santa Barbara, Aaron has recently returned to the Bay Area and is now serving as General Counsel for the 8 Shields Institute.

 

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Jason Fellner is a business and litigation attorney at Murphy, Pearson, Bradley & Feeney in San Francisco.  He is an American Board of Trial Advocates (A.B.O.T.A.) Trial College Fellow and serves as a Commissioner on the City of Millbrae's Parks & Recreation Commission.  He co-chaired the 2006 California Water Law Symposium and has been a part of the Water Law Symposium’s growth since its inauguration in 2005.  Mr. Fellner is a graduate of the University of San Francisco School of Law and the University of California, San Diego.  When he is not working, Mr. Fellner can be found surfing the waves at Ocean Beach and spending time with his family.

 

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Thomas Hicks is a graduate of the University of San Francisco School of Law where he chaired the inaugural California Water Law Symposium in 2005. He is an attorney and water law advisor. During law school he initiated the California Water Law Symposium for Bay Area law students and clerked for the San Francisco Office of the City Attorney (Public Utilities Commission and Energy & Telecommunications Teams), the California State Water Resources Control Board (Office of Chief Counsel), and a private firm representing municipalities and state water exchange contractors. Before law school he worked at the Natural Heritage Institute (hydro-energy and water policy) and founded the Headwaters Institute (watershed education seminars for professional guides). He also instructed at the Colorado Outward Bound School and worked as a whitewater rafting guide across the United States.

 

He co-authored 43 C.F.R. Part 417 Does Not Authorize Federal Agency Adjudication of IID Beneficial Use of Colorado River Water, 14 HASTINGS WEST NORTHWEST J. OF ENVTL. L. & POL’Y 1499 (2008) and more recently authored An Interpretation of the Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations Supporting the Tax Deductibility of the Voluntary Charitable Contribution in Perpetuity of a Partial Interest in an Appropriative or Riparian Water Right Transferred Instream for Conservation Purposes (with an emphasis on California Water Law), 17 HASTINGS WEST NORTHWEST J. OF ENVTL. L. & POL’Y 93 (May 2011).