California Easements, Rights-of-Way, & Eminent Domain
DISCLAIMER
Before purchasing, review the rules of your licensing or certifying entity. It is your responsibility to confirm this course meets your CE requirements. See the credit tab on the course page for details.
What’s Included: Full webinar recording, written course materials, expert instruction, a mandatory quiz, and a certificate upon completion.
Deliverability Timeline: All courses are generally available within 1-2 weeks after the live presentation.
CE Credits: AIA and/or LA/CES accreditation is available by request for courses recorded prior to March 11, 2026. All courses after that date include those accreditations by default, if applicable. With these accreditations, our courses qualify for credit in nearly all states for engineers, surveyors, architects, and landscape architects.
Learn more about the on-demand format in our FAQ or contact us at (715) 835-5900 or customerservice@halfmoonseminars.org
Agenda
As a result of recent health and safety concerns regarding the COVID-19 virus, this seminar will also be offered as a live webinar.
To register for the online webinar, please follow this link: https://www.halfmoonseminars.org/seminars/133363/california-easements-rights-of-way-and-eminent-domain-seminar/online
Registration: 8:00 – 8:30 am
Morning Session: 8:30 am – 12:00 pm
Lunch (On your own): 12:00 – 1:00 pm
Afternoon Session: 1:00 – 4:30 pm
Identifying, Classifying and Locating Easements
S. McKinley
What is and is not an easement
Reviewing state law on easements
Creating easements: easements by necessity, easements by use, written easements
Identifying critical distinctions between easements in gross, easements appurtenant
and prescriptive easements
Maintaining easements
Knowing when and how to terminate easements
Obstructing use of easements and determining remedies for obstruction
Creating and Managing Highway Rights-of-Way
M. Pallamary
Identifying potential rights-of-way
Negotiating and valuing easements
Rights included in right-of-way
Landowner rights
Maintenance of right-of-way
Alterations and encroachments
Trespass, Adverse Possession and
Other Unauthorized Access to Land
B. Grabske
Elements of civil trespass to land
Reviewing the history of adverse possession
Maintaining a claim for adverse possession
• Statute of limitations
• Elements of a claim
Defending against a claim for adverse possession
Examining recent adverse possession cases
Eminent Domain Law
B. Lichman
Understanding eminent domain powers
• Source of eminent domain powers
• History of the exercise of eminent domain powers
• Types of eminent domain “takings”
Just compensation: valuing “taken” property
Privatization of eminent domain and other current issues
Participating in the Condemnation Process
D. Wance
Condemnation process for government use
Hearing and right of appeal
Valuing the property taken
Condemnation process for utility and other quasi-public use
Credits
California Attorneys
6.5 CLE Hours
Professional Engineers
and Land Surveyors
Non-Credit Continuing Ed.
Continuing Education Credit Information
This seminar is open to the public. The State Bar of California has approved HalfMoon Education as an MCLE sponsor, and this program offers 6.5 CLE hours to attorneys and paralegals.
This program offers a non-credit continuing education opportunity to California engineers and land surveyors. Continuing education is not required for license maintenance in California. Those seeking continuing education credit in other states will be able to apply the hours earned at this seminar, in most cases. Refer to specific state continuing education rules to determine eligibility.
Attendance will be monitored, and attendance certificates will be available after the seminar for most individuals who complete the entire event. Attendance certificates not available at the seminar will be mailed to participants within fifteen business days.
Speakers
Bradford Grabske
Partner at Murphy & Evertz Attorneys at Law in Costa MesaMr. Grabske specializes in real estate and complex business litigation. His practice is focused on assisting landowners, businesses, and public agencies with eminent domain, inverse condemnation, contract disputes, land use and environmental issues. Mr. Grabske has successfully represented clients in high stakes trials and before the Court of Appeals. Mr. Grabske has also been recognized as a “Rising Star” in Los Angeles magazine’s Southern California Super Lawyer edition.
Barbara Lichman, Ph.D.
Buchalter Law FirmMs. Lichman, Ph.D., has an extensive and successful record representing airports, municipalities, developers, and other public and private clients in litigation and administrative proceedings under Federal Aviation statutes such as the Airline Deregulation Act and Airport Noise and Capacity Act; the California Public Utilities Code governing land use in airport environs (Aeronautics Act); and federal and state environmental statutes including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Federal Clean Air Act, the Federal Clean Water Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, and the California Coastal Act. She has also successfully represented clients in litigation involving land use issues such as inverse condemnation, development agreements and specific plan amendments. Dr. Lichman holds a doctorate in Urban and Regional Planning.
Steven McKinley
McKinley LLPMr. McKinley has been the managing partner at Freeland McKinley & McKinley since 2011, His trial court and appellate experience spans 40 years in easement law, eminent domain and inverse condemnation, real property, construction defect, real estate broker liability, land use, agreed boundaries, and adverse possession. Mr. McKinley is admitted to practice before all courts in the State of California and is a member of the California State Bar Association.
Michael J. Pallamary, PLS
Owner, Pallamary & AssociatesPallamary & Associates is owned and operated by Michael J. Pallamary, a professional land surveyor licensed by the State of California. Mr. Pallamary has 42 years experience in the land surveying, land planning, land use consultation and engineering professions. He is a nationally recognized authority on land surveying and local land development regulations. Mr. Pallamary is a founding member of the Land Surveyors Advisory Council on Technical Standards (LSACTS). He writes a regular column for The American Surveyor magazine. He owned and operated Precision Survey & Mapping from 1983 to 1999. Mr. Pallamary has also been the owner and president of Land Survey Service of La Jolla since 1983. He is recognized as the preeminent authority on the redevelopment of property in La Jolla and San Diego’s coastal regions. Mr. Pallamary is also the owner and operator of www.tiepoints.com, the state of California’s premiere Land Surveyor Resource and Research Site. This site is also used as a tool to locate City of San Diego Tie Points. Pallamary & Associates specializes in land use litigation and the processing of complex land use permits, land planning, discretionary permits and coastal development permits issued by the City of San Diego and the California Coastal Commission. The company also provide project management services and land development consultation services for conventional projects and also in connection with insurance matters. As the owner of Land Survey Service of La Jolla, Mr. Pallamary owns the largest private collection of property records and survey maps of La Jolla properties. Mr. Pallamary is also a former member of the City of San Diego’s Board of Zoning Appeals in addition to having spent many years as a member of a variety of planning organizations including a term as the elected chairman of the Clairemont Mesa Planning Group, an elected member of the North Bay Project Area Committee and an appointed member of the Mission Bay Park Committee and Mission Bay Park Planners. In these capacities, he has co-authored the Mission Bay Park Master Plan, the Clairemont Mesa Community Plan and the North Bay Redevelopment Master Plan. Mr. Pallamary is also a co-author of the City of San Diego’s Mapping and Land Title Document Preparation Manual.
Douglas E. Wance
Shareholder with Buchalter Law Firm in Irvine, CAMr. Wance is a shareholder and former chair of Buchalter’s Land Use Practice Group. He has built a cross-disciplinary practice involving land use and entitlements, water resources, environmental compliance, natural resources, and public law through the representation of both public agencies and private businesses throughout California. Mr. Wance has handled all aspects of these substantive areas, from advising clients regarding the applicability of the law, to guiding clients through a permitting or entitlement process, or defending clients subject to enforcement actions. He successfully represented businesses and public agencies in sophisticated financial, real estate, water resource, environmental compliance, and land development matters in court and before administrative agencies. Mr. Wance’s land use and entitlement background includes representation of residential developers, public entities, major industrial facilities, and other commercial businesses in all phases of project development before local and state agencies, city councils, and county board of supervisors. He has assisted clients in obtaining development and environmental permits and project approvals for power plants, schools, mixed-use, and industrial development projects.