The United States owns over 30 percent of the nation’s surface lands, and has sovereignty over the submerged lands of the Outer Continental Shelf.  These lands contain critical resources: water; wildlife; recreation areas; minerals, including oil and gas; forage for grazing cattle and sheep; timber; and wilderness. 

The United States’ management of its offshore and onshore lands inevitably involves a balance among competing uses, and its decisions are often highly controversial and give rise to legal challenges by the private beneficiaries of economic uses, by affected states and local governments, and by advocates for recreation or preservation values.

Issues over the ownership of lands as between the States and the Federal Government, and the establishment of state ownership rights in navigable waters also have large economic ramifications.  All of this litigation arises under diverse statutory regimes affecting the various lands and their resources. 

Our litigation involves: