Practice
Areas: Ethics
and Elections; Government Law and Litigation; Appellate Advocacy
Experience
Mr. Riddle
is the firm's managing partner. Mr. Riddle advises and represents elections officials on a wide range
of election law issues. Mr. Riddle possesses a unique combination
of election law experience, having served as Chief Counsel
to the California Secretary of State and counsel to a county
registrar of voters for ten years. Mr. Riddle, who manages
the California Election Law website (www.calelectionlaw.com),
has provided advice and litigation representation on matters
related to initiative, referendum and recall petitions, candidate
qualification and the nomination process, the implementation
of new voting systems, the Voting Rights Act and the Help
America Vote Act. Mr. Riddle also teaches Election Law at the University of San Francisco School of Law.
Some of
the matters on which Mr. Riddle has provided representation
include:
Mr. Riddle
also counsels and provides training to local agency officials
on a wide array of government law issues, including the California
Public Records Act, the Brown Act open meeting law, and the
California Political Reform Act and related ethics laws. He
also represents public agencies in litigation arising under
these laws, as well as constitutional challenges to local
government laws and policies.
Mr. Riddle is also an experienced appellate advocate on behalf
of government agencies. He has written numerous appellate
briefs on a wide range of election, government and constitutional
issues. He has also handled dozens of writ of mandate actions
during his career as a government law attorney.
Related Experience
Prior
to joining Renne Sloan Holtzman Sakai, Mr. Riddle served as
Chief Counsel to the Office of the California Secretary of
State where he advised and represented the agency on the full
range of election law issues, including the implementation
of new voting systems. For fifteen years, Mr. Riddle served
in the San Francisco City Attorney's Office, where he was
the Counsel to the Registrar of Voters and the San Francisco
Ethics Commission. Mr. Riddle later became Chief of the Government
Litigation Team, where he supervised sensitive and complex
litigation involving challenges to city laws and policies,
including City employment and contracting policies.
Mr. Riddle also served as Legal Counsel to the National Senate
of the Republic of Palau, which had recently gained its independence.
He drafted legislation, provided advice on a wide range of
domestic and international issues, and represented the Senate
in litigation.
Education
University
of Notre Dame (B.S. 1979); Golden Gate University (J.D. 1985),
Paul S. Jordan Outstanding Student Award.
Bar
Admissions
California
Iowa (inactive)
Republic of Palau (inactive)
Selected
Presentations and Publications
AB 1234 Ethics Training, El Dorado County (December 2006)
“Courts Take the Initiative,” County Counsels’ Association Annual Meeting, Monterey (September 2006)
“Town Hall Meeting on Electronic Voting” (panel member), conducted by Congressman Mike Honda (March 2005)
City Attorneys Continuing Education Seminar,League of California Cities, Issues in Election Law, Emeryville, February 2008
