Jill N. Willis

Partner

Los Angeles
300 South Grand Avenue
25th Floor

TEL: (213) 787-2558
Jill.Willis@bbklaw.com

Jill Willis is a Partner in the Natural Resources Practice Group of the law firm of Best Best & Krieger LLP.  Ms. Willis specializes in water rights and related issues.  She has significant litigation experience and is actively involved in one of the State's largest and most complex groundwater adjudications involving the Santa Maria Groundwater Basin.  She represents numerous public and private clients in actions involving surface and groundwater rights throughout Southern California, including the Antelope Valley, the Cucamonga Basin, the Chino Basin, the Santa Ana River, and the Colorado River.  She also represents the Friant Water Users Authority in a federal environmental matter involving the Federal Central Valley Project.

Ms. Willis joined Best Best & Krieger LLP in 2002 after working for Latham & Watkins, where she advised clients on a variety of federal and state environmental issues as well as complex insurance disputes arising from environmental liabilities.  She also worked as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and served as a judicial law clerk for Judge Emmett Cox of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Ms. Willis graduated with high honors from the University of Florida College of Law in 1997, where she received the Gersten Key Award for most outstanding graduate.  She served as Editor-in-Chief of the Florida Law Review and authored two student articles that were published in the Review.  She graduated summa cum laude from Florida Southern College with a Bachelor of Arts in English.  Ms. Willis is a member of the State Bar of California and is also licensed to practice in the District of Columbia.

Bar & Court Admissions

• California, 1999

Education

• JD, University of Florida College of Law
• BA, Florida Southern College