Kara K. Ueda

Partner

Kara K. Ueda is a municipal law partner at Best Best & Krieger LLP where she specializes in conflicts of interest, elections, land use, and the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). She regularly provides ethics training for public officials to comply with AB 1234. Kara also assists public agencies on general plan updates, LAFCO matters, Proposition 218, and Brown Act and Public Records Act compliance. She also negotiates and drafts a variety of agreements, including open space acquisitions and conservation easements. Kara serves as assistant city attorney to the cities of Davis, Paso Robles and Winters, and previously served as city attorney of Rio Vista and as general counsel for the First Five Yuba Commission.

In addition, Kara routinely litigates CEQA, land use and elections cases in state and federal courts. She has successfully defended public agencies in these types of cases as well as in redevelopment, municipal finance and affordable housing cases.

Kara is a member of the Municipal Law Handbook Committees of the League of California Cities City Attorneys’ Department. She previously served as a liaison to the LCC’s Environmental Quality Policy Committee, as a representative from the City Attorneys’ Department to the Administrative Services Policy Committee, and on the FPPC Committee of the City Attorneys’ Department. Kara is a board member and president of the UC Davis School of Law Alumni Association and the president of the Asian/Pacific Bar Association of Sacramento. She is a member of the Milton L. Schwartz/David F. Levi American Inn of Court and Women Lawyers of Sacramento. She previously worked as a staff attorney for the League of California Cities and served as a Senate fellow at the State Capitol.

In 2012, Kara was recognized by her peers as a Northern California Rising Star in Northern California Super Lawyers Magazine. She was named by the Sacramento Business Journal as a 40 under 40 award winner in 2011. She is also an adjunct professor, teaching local government law at University of California, Davis School of Law.

Education

• University of California, Davis, J.D. (2000)
• University of California, Davis, B.S. (1996)

Bar Admissions

• California (2000)

Court Admissions

• All State Courts in California
• United States District Court, Eastern District of California
• United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Kara K. Ueda

Partner

• Author, Emails and Text Messages On Personal Devices Subject to Public Records Act,” BB&K Legal Alert, March 25, 2013
• Co-author, “FPPC Approves Amendment Clarifying Appointments to Paid Positions,” BB&K Legal Alert, March 16, 2012
• Author, “The Brown Act and the Perils of Electronic Communication,” Western City, June 2011
• Author, "Round and Round We Go…? The new ‘revolving door’ law," Public Law Journal, The State Bar of California, Vol. 30, No. 1, Spring 2007
• Co-author, "A Local Official’s Guide to Ethics Laws," published by the Institute for Local Government
• Reviewer, League of California Cities, Municipal Law Handbook

Kara K. Ueda

Partner

• Presenter, “CEQA Litigation and Current Issues,” Lorman Education Services, March 2012
• Co-presenter, “Dealing with Greenhouse Gas Emissions & CEQA: Practical Advice on Analysis and Mitigation,” June 2009
• Presenter, “Email and Open Government Laws – What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You,” 2005 League of California Cities Mayors and Council Members Academy.
• Presenter, “Zoning and Land Use,” Lorman Education Services, 2005.
• Presenter, “Document Management in an Internet World” and “When E-Mail and the Brown Act Collide,” Association of California Water Agencies 2005 Continuing Legal Education for Water Law Professionals.
• Presenter, Ethics Training (frequent)