Holding a diploma in international trade, finance, and business law awarded in 1989 at I.S.S.E.C. in Paris, France, and his law degree from Loyola Law School, Mr. Finney specializes in business and malpractice litigation, regulatory compliance and enforcement, and corporate transactions.  He took a leave of absence from the private practice of law beginning in 1995 to serve the public.  Mr. Finney spent eight years at the highest appointed levels in California state government, resulting in substantial development in his government regulatory and political expertise.  Mr. Finney concentrates his work in the Firm’s Regulatory Advocacy, Energy, Business Transactions, Drug and Medical Device Litigation, Transportation, Real Property, Environmental, and Entertainment Practice Areas.

In the regulatory arena, Mr. Finney has successfully represented one of the nation's top three homebuilders, among other national corporate entities, in high stakes, high profile enforcement actions. In conjunction with the Firm's transactional practice, Mr. Finney's work has resulted in the successful consummation of several major developments, including a new feature film and television production studio, a major waterfront redevelopment, the formation of an international renewable energy company, and the formation of a national waste management technology company.  His work on behalf of the Firm's clients has also resulted in the formation and financing of a multi-hundred million dollar real estate opportunity fund and several significant private equity funds.  Mr. Finney's appointment to the Executive Committee of the Environmental Section of the State Bar in 2004 has bolstered the Firm's established and growing environmental practice.

Mr. Finney's political and government experience has spanned more than two decades.  While working on a plethora of state, local, and national campaigns throughout the last three decades, he developed a national network of meaningful relationships.  He clerked in the United States Congress in the late 1980's, and began his practice of law at that time.  In 1993, Mr. Finney was elected Controller, and thereby Chair of the Finance Committee and Business Council, of the statewide California Democratic Party. In 1995, he was appointed by the State Controller to serve as General Counsel and Deputy Controller. In 1998, he was appointed to serve as General Counsel to the Lieutenant Governor. While working in these positions, Mr. Finney served on and staffed a number of other critical positions in state government, including:

• California Public Employees Retirement System
• California State Teachers Retirement System
• California Board of Equalization
• California Franchise Tax Board
• California Board of Control
• California State Mandates Commission
• Regents of the University of California
• Trustees of the California State University
• California Commission for Economic Development
• California State Lands Commission
• A host of state financing and bonding authorities

In 1999, Mr. Finney was elevated to the position of Senior Advisor and Director of Policy to the Governor of California. In this capacity, he served as the Governor’s business liaison and point person on numerous statewide projects, including the first Governor’s Aerospace and Commercial Space Summit, the Governor’s Lifescience Initiative (with four regional summits held in the state’s four main lifescience clusters; San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, and Sacramento), the first Governor’s Summit on Homelessness, Geothermal Energy, and Hydrogen Technologies and Policies, and creating and managing the Technology Advisory Group to the Governor’s Infrastructure Commission. Other major state projects Mr. Finney worked on included the Digital California Project (an education technology network connecting all of California’s elementary, middle, and high schools with the community college and university system), the Indian gaming compacts, the California Film Commission and entertainment industry, the Governor’s Defense Industry Gold Team, the California Defense Retention and Conversion Council, and the Holocaust Era Insurance Oversight Committee.

Mr. Finney also became the “utility infielder” for the Governor in key posts and for key votes. As the Los Angeles Times reported in an October 24, 2003 article, the Governor considered Mr. Finney among his “most trusted trouble-shooters” and “made a practice of naming Finney to boards and commissions so he could cast deciding votes on key issues.” His many appointments included:

• Director of the Office of Administrative Law (state’s chief regulator)
• Director of the Office of Planning and Research (state’s chief land use planner, small business advocate, rural policy advocate, environmental justice advocate, international and community economic development advocate, and California Native American liaison)
• Member of the Public Utilities Commission (regulates state’s transportation and utilities)
• Director of the Office of Innovation in Government (state’s technology policy director)
• Governing Member of the California Independent System Operator (manages state’s electricity grid and energy markets)
• Interim Director of the Department of Social Services (adoptions, foster care, welfare-to-work and food stamps, child support, disaster service, community care and licensing, civil rights, refugee, and deaf access programs)
• Governing Member of the California Earthquake Authority (world’s largest public catastrophic insurer)
• Chair of the California Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board (administers the Healthy Families program that provides insurance for uninsured children and their families, for uninsured low income pregnant mothers and their infants, and for individuals rejected by insurers due to pre-existing conditions)

Mr. Finney brings to the Firm his extensive understanding of the dynamics of government, together with an unparalleled network of active contacts within both the political and corporate business communities. His practice areas include business litigation, corporate and financing transactions, government regulatory enforcement and compliance, land use and development, construction law, energy, entertainment, nonprofit corporate transactions and compliance, and professional malpractice.

Mr. Finney serves as a member of the California Voting Modernization Board, the Hollywood Entertainment Museum Board, the Defense Orientation Conference Association, the Advisors to the Executive Committee of the Environmental Section of the California State Bar, and on the corporate boards of Iceland America Energy, Big House Entertainment, and Herhof California.  He has been named a Super Laywer for three consecutive years in the areas of environmental, government, and energy law and was recently distinguished as such in the Super Lawyers Corporate Counsel Edition for Energy and Natural Resources.