Mitchell Rishe

Mitchell E. Rishe is a deputy attorney general with the California Attorney General’s Office in Los Angeles. He practices environmental law in the Office’s Land Law Section, representing California state agencies including the Coastal Commission, State Lands Commission, Department of Conservation, Department of Parks and Recreation, and the Department of Housing and Community Development. Mr. Rishe’s work includes defending Coastal Commission permitting decisions; representing California in federal court in connection with bankruptcy proceedings of oil, gas and mining companies; defending the Department of Parks and Recreation in litigation involving State Vehicular Recreation Areas (off-<br>road vehicle parks); and challenging Trump Administration efforts to roll back protections against discriminatory housing practices. His cases at the Attorney General’s Office include Sunshine Enterprises v. California Coastal Commission, No. B284459 (Cal. Ct. App. Mar. 22, 2019) (affirming Commission’s denial of after-the-fact permit for a Santa Monica hotel built without a coastal development permit); and in private practice include Palmer/Sixth Street Properties, L.P. v. City of Los Angeles, 175 Cal. App. 4th<br>1396 (Cal. Ct. App. 2009) (invalidating Los Angeles’s inclusionary housing ordinance as inconsistent with the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act, Cal. Civ. Code, § 1954.50, et seq.). He also has represented state agencies in mediation and settlements, including, among others, the 2015 Refugio oil spill in Santa Barbara County; a constitutional takings claim brought by a bankrupt oil and gas company against the state in connection with the decommissioning of the company’s oil and gas facilities; proceedings brought by a local air pollution control district against the Department of Parks and Recreation for pol-<br>lution caused by off-highway vehicle riding; proceedings brought by or against the Coastal Commission relating to coastal development; and claims against the state relating to the permitting of underground injection wells. In addition, he participated in mandatory settlement conferences in California Environmental Quality Act cases (Cal. Pub. Resources Code § 21167.8). Mr. Rishe has been with the Attorney General’s Office since 2008. He received his B.S. from the Wharton School of the University of Penn-<br>sylvania in 1993 and his J.D. from UCLA School of Law in 1997.