Experience
Richard Hall's practice focuses on natural resources, real estate, and energy law, with an emphasis on land and energy development projects, mining, water rights, and public lands law.
Richard assists clients with natural resource and energy development projects, including renewable energy projects. His past experience as a civil engineer for an electrical utility allows him to combine his legal experience with a technical understanding of resource and energy development projects. He represents mining and energy clients in structuring and negotiating land acquisition and lease agreements, as wells as permitting projects on public and private lands. He assists in the attainment of land use entitlements and project compliance with federal, state and local regulations. He also regularly handles water rights matters in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana, including recent adjudication matters before the Idaho Water Court and Montana Water Court (pro hac vice).
Richard represents clients before various federal, state and local regulatory, land use and resource management agencies, including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and various state environmental quality, state trust lands and water rights agencies, as well as public utility commissions.
He also has extensive experience in land title matters. In addition to general title review conducted in conjunction with real estate acquisitions, Richard's experience includes the preparation of more than 25 title opinions for resource development projects. These opinions cover coal, oil, gas, limestone, geothermal and oil sands projects on public, private and tribal lands in Alaska, Utah, Washington, Oregon and Nevada.
Prior Work Experience
- Civil Engineer, Seattle City Light, Generation Division, 1999-2000
- Summer Clerk, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Washington, D.C., 2002
Professional Honors & Activities
- Chair, Environmental and Natural Resources Section, Idaho State Bar, 2009-Present
- Past Chair, Mining Law Section, Utah State Bar, 2008-2008
- Board of Directors, Idaho Botanical Gardens
- Board of Directors, J. Reuben Clark Law Society
- Member, Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation
- Member, Idaho State Bar Association
- Member, Utah State Bar Association
- Member, Wyoming Bar Association
Publications
- Coauthor, Real Estate Chapter, The Law of Biomass, Stoel Rives Law of Series, 2010
- Coauthor, "Coal: Like It or Not, It's Here to Stay," The Enterprise newspaper, Salt Lake City, UT, June 2007
- Coauthor, "Legal Issues in Solution and In-Situ Mining," 52 Rocky Mtn. Min. L. Inst. 17 1, 2006
- Coauthor, "The Energy Policy Act of 2005," Connect magazine, July 2006
Education
- University of Chicago Law School, J.D., 2003
Member, Chicago Journal of International Law, 1999-2001
- Brigham Young University B.S. Civil Engineering, 1999
Admissions
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