H. David Nahai Elected President of the Water and Power Board of Commissioners; Commissioner Edith Ramirez Named Vice President
H. David Nahai, an attorney specializing in corporate, real estate and environmental law, has been elected as president of the City of Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners. The Board also elected Commissioner Edith Ramirez, also an attorney, as vice president.
Mary D. Nichols, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment and a former state and federal environmental official, who has served as Board President since Sept. 23, 2006, announced she would step down as president in order to concentrate more of her time on key issues such as energy efficiency and water recycling programs.
Nahai, who was appointed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to the Board of Water and Power Commissioners last September, is the president of Nahai Law Corporation, a Century City law firm, specializing in real estate, corporate, environmental and commercial law. Nahai has practiced law in Los Angeles since 1979 and holds graduate and post-graduate degrees in law from the London School of Economics and the University of California, Berkeley and was a Visiting Scholar at Berkeley.
Since 1997, Nahai has served as a member of the Regional Water Quality Control Board. He has served three terms on the board since his appointment in 1997, elected as Chairman in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2005. Nahai also serves on the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, and currently serves as vice chairman. He has served on the Environmental Task Force for Governor Schwarzenegger. Additionally, Nahai is a member of the Board of the California League of Conservation Voters and is the Chairman of its Development Committee, and a member of its Executive Committee.
Ramirez, who was also appointed last September by Mayor Villaraigosa, is a partner with the law firm of Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart, Oliver & Hedges, LLP, specializing in intellectual property and complex business litigation matters. She received her A.B. from Harvard-Radcliffe College in 1989. Ramirez obtained her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1992, where she served as a member of the Harvard Law Review. After graduation she served as a law clerk to the Honorable Alfred T. Goodwin, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She was an associate at the firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher for three years before joining Quinn Emanuel.
Ramirez has participated in a variety of other professional and community activities, including serving as a member of the Board of Directors of Volunteers of America of Los Angeles. Ramirez is former President of the Board of Directors of the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice. She was also formerly a member of the Los Angeles Police Permit Review Panel.
The Commissioners, who set policy for the Department of Water and Power, are appointed to five-year terms and work on a completely voluntary basis.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, established more than 100 years ago to provide reliable water and electricity to the city’s residents and businesses, serves more than 3.9 million people in Los Angeles. For more information about the LADWP, log on to www.ladwp.com.