CONTACTS

Tel: (805) 962-0011, ext. 122
Fax: (805) 965-3978
cap@ppplaw.com

AREAS OF PRACTICE

Water Law
Civil Litigation
Environmental and Natural Resources Law
Employment Law

EXPERIENCE

Mr. Parton’s practice involves a variety of complex corporate, business and other litigation matters. He has handled jury trials and appeals in state and federal courts in numerous jurisdictions.

Mr. Parton has handled to verdict or settlement over one hundred environmental contamination and natural resources cases. He served as defense counsel in the often cited federal court case of Wilshire Westwood v. Arco which established the now well known “petroleum exclusion” under CERCLA.

In addition, he completed a nine month jury trial involving the controversial gasoline additive MTBE. This was the first case in the United States to go to trial on the question of whether MTBE is a defective product.

His practice has included cases venued throughout the state of California, including the defense of class action litigation, representation of private college preparatory institutions as well as undergraduate and graduate universities both in an advising capacity and as chief litigation counsel, and representation of corporations and individuals, residential, commercial and agricultural land owners, publicly traded oil and gas companies, municipalities, mutual water companies, landfill owners, and small business owners and partnerships.

Mr. Parton has served as trial counsel in two groundwater basin adjudications that have gone to trial in California. He represented a private landowner in the Santa Maria Groundwater Basin case, and was trial counsel for a public water management district in the Seaside Groundwater Basin adjudication.

After a state-wide search, Mr. Parton was selected in 2017 by the Antelope Valley Watermaster to be its first General Counsel.  The Antelope Valley Groundwater Adjudication involved thousands of parties and over 15 years of litigation before being resolved in 2015.

EDUCATION

  • California Polytechnic State University (B.A., summa cum laude, 1977)
  • The Simon Greenleaf School of Law (M.A., 1984)
  • University of California, Hastings College of the Law (J.D., 1987)
  • Executive Note & Comment Editor, COMM/ENT, The Hastings Journal of Communications and Entertainment Law, 1986-1987

ADMISSIONS

  • California
  • United States District Court, Northern, Central and Eastern Districts of California, Southern District of Nevada
  • United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and the Federal Circuit
  • United States Court of Federal Claims (Washington, D.C.)
  • United States Supreme Court

MEMBERSHIPS

  • The State Bar of California
  • Santa Barbara County Bar Association (past Chairman of the Litigation Section, 1992-1994)
  • Martindale-Hubbell (AV Rating)

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

  • Community Arts and Music Association (CAMA) – Treasurer and Board of Directors
  • Montecito Retirement Association (Casa Dorinda) – Executive Committee and Board of Directors

REPORTED CASES

  • Phelan Pinon Hills Community Services District v. Antelope Valley Watermaster (2021)
    • 2021 WL 5984257
  • DeBoni v. Del Norte Water Company (2011)
    • 200 Cal.App.4th 1163
  • Baugh v. Garl (2006)
    • 137 Cal.App.4th 737
  • Union Oil Company of California v. Terrible Herbst, Inc. (9th Cir. 2003)
    • 331 F.3d 735

OTHER

Mr. Parton is the United States director of the International Academy of Apologetics and Human Rights which is based in Strasbourg, France. He teaches in the areas of theology, law, and human rights for two weeks each summer in Strasbourg at the annual session of this seminar.