Josh Chatten-Brown

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Josh Chatten-Brown is a partner in Chatten-Brown, Carstens & Minteer's San Diego office.  As a land use and environmental law attorney, he has litigated a wide variety of cases including matters involving the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), Coastal Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  Josh has represented clients throughout the state and has successfully argued cases before the California Courts of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal.  Josh also lectures on CEQA litigation and practice.

The following are examples of cases that Josh has worked on:​​
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  • -  Over nearly a decade, CBC represented the Sierra Club (joined by six other environmental organizations in 2018) in climate change litigation, successfully challenging the County of San Diego's legally inadequate Climate Action Plans and the environmental review performed for them.  The most recent lawsuit set aside the County's use of unenforceable out-of-County carbon credits and required the County to evaluate a smart-growth alternative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.​​


-  Represented the Center for Biological Diversity and successfully forced the Fish and Game Commission to rescind an emergency exemption that authorized the killing or harming of the rare black-backed woodpecker during its candidacy under the California Endangered Species Act. This case was litigated in San Francisco. 

-  Prevailed in a CEQA lawsuit, on behalf of the Sierra Club, challenging the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) prepared for the Del Mar Fairgrounds' Master Plan in San Diego.  The trial court agreed that there was a failure to analyze traffic impacts, identify an adequate water supply for the project, and describe existing greenhouse gas emissions from Fairgrounds' operations. 

-   Represented the Sierra Club in challenging, under the California Coastal Act, the Del Mar Fairgrounds' decision to fill in wetlands for parking. 

- On behalf of a group of local ranchers, CBC successfully challenged, under CEQA, the EIR prepared for a proposed strip mine quarry in Amador County. The court validated CBC's claim that the project analysis failed to accurately reveal the likely traffic impacts of the quarry.

-  Obtained a decisive CEQA victory for a coalition of residents and environmental organizations seeking to stop the construction of a radio tower immediately adjacent to a state park in San Bernardino.  The trial court agreed that the EIR failed to adequately analyze the visual, land use, and fire safety impacts of the project.

Prior to joining Chatten-Brown, Carstens & Minteer, Josh was the associate director of a nonprofit law firm dedicated to protecting human rights, as well as a staff attorney at Legal Aid Society of San Diego. He received his Juris Doctorate from Loyola University Chicago, where he focused on public interest law. Josh completed his undergraduate work at the University of Michigan. He is admitted to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and the federal District Court for the Southern District of California. Josh is fluent in Spanish, and has lived abroad in Spain, Mexico, and Argentina, where he also completed a judicial externship in the Buenos Aires Superior Court.

As an avid surfer, Josh has a long-standing interest in water quality and coastal issues. He is on the board of directors of WiLDCOAST, an organization dedicated to conserving coastal and marine ecosystems and wildlife.  

Phone: 619-940-4522
Email: jrcb@cbcearthlaw.com