New Leadership Appointments for Stoel Rives Sacramento Office

Sacramento, CA — Stoel Rives LLP, a U.S. law firm, today announced a series of leadership changes involving attorneys in the firm’s Sacramento office.

Effective today, Sacramento partner Melissa A. Jones assumes leadership of the firm’s California offices as California Offices Managing Partner (OMP). Timothy M. Taylor, who previously served as the California OMP, is set to lead the firm’s diversity efforts, effective August 1, 2014. In addition, Sacramento partner Michael N. Mills begins serving as Chair of the firm’s Oil, Gas, Pipelines and Mining industry team, effective today.

“Our Sacramento office and California presence have played a significant role in the firm’s strategic growth in the past decade,” said Firm Managing Partner Robert D. Van Brocklin. “Tim Taylor, Melissa Jones and Mike Mills are important leaders in our firm, and I’m delighted they have agreed to assume these important leadership roles of firmwide significance.”

“I joined Stoel Rives because I was convinced we could provide superior value for clients doing business in California,” said Jones. “Today, I’m excited to build on the strong momentum Tim Taylor established, and I look forward to working with all my colleagues and clients to make sure we realize our full business potential here in California and beyond.”

Jones is a litigation partner who joined the firm in 2011, and as OMP will manage the firm’s four California offices, located in Sacramento, San Francisco, San Diego and Truckee. Jones is a trial lawyer who provides counsel in complex business disputes, appellate matters, internal investigations and Proposition 65 defense. In 2012, Jones was selected by the Sacramento Business Journal as a “40 Under 40” leader, and in 2011 the Los Angeles Daily Journal and San Francisco Daily Journal named her as one of the “Top 100 Women Lawyers” in California. Jones earned her J.D. from the University of California, Davis and her B.A. from California State University, Chico.

Formed in 2008, the firm’s Oil, Gas, Pipelines and Mining industry team is a firmwide, multi-disciplinary group of lawyers who devote their practice to knowing and serving these industries. Mills is an oil and gas attorney focused on environmental, permitting and litigation matters. Beyond oil and gas and environmental law, his practice involves a wide spectrum of natural resources matters, including mining, land use and eminent domain. Mills is a past president of both the Sacramento County Bar Association and the Federal Bar Association’s Sacramento Chapter. He earned his J.D. and B.S. from the University of California, Davis.

Taylor served as California OMP since 2009, in addition to being a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and other firmwide committees much of that time. He is an environmental and land use lawyer who is engaged with the permitting of commercial, residential and industrial projects, including large-scale energy and renewable energy projects. Taylor regularly helps clients with California's numerous land use and environmental laws, with particular focus on the California Environmental Quality Act and related litigation. He also represents numerous public agency clients on state planning, zoning, development and environmental law matters. Taylor was selected as the Sacramento Land Use & Zoning Law Lawyer of the Year in 2013 and the Sacramento Environmental Law Lawyer of the Year in 2012 by Best Lawyers®. He is a visiting professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law, and has been a member of the Davis Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees since 2005. Taylor earned his J.D. and M.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles and his B.A. from Dartmouth College.

About Stoel Rives LLP:  Stoel Rives is a business law firm providing corporate and litigation services to a wide range of clients throughout the United States.  The firm has nearly 400 attorneys operating out of 12 offices in seven states and the District of Columbia.  Stoel Rives is a leader in corporate, energy, environmental, intellectual property, labor and employment, land use and construction, litigation, natural resources, project development and real estate law.  For more information, visit www.stoel.com.