Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto today granted Somach Simmons & Dunn’s motion to stay the consolidated Delta Conveyance Project CEQA cases through March 27, 2026. He set a hearing on DWR’s motion to disqualify the firm as counsel for Sacramento County and the City of Stockton for March 20, 2026.
From the bench, the judge described the potential disqualification as “monumental.” He indicated that he understood how severely it would impact Somach’s clients: local governments representing approximately two million Delta-area residents who have relied on the firm’s representation in Delta Conveyance matters since 2007.
Most significantly, Judge Acquisto questioned why DWR, the party claiming the conflict, and alleging possession of confidential information by Somach, had not itself requested a stay and was instead opposing one.
“A Victim of Its Own Doing”
Dan Kelly, counsel for Placer County Water Agency (a non-Somach client), made the same point even more sharply in a filing sent to the State Water Resources Control Board Administrative Hearing Officer in the ongoing water rights change proceeding:
“DWR is now a victim of its own doing.”
In spring 2025, Kelly wrote, DWR had the opportunity to pursue its conflict allegations but instead “stood down”:
“DWR, with some hand waving, indicated it simply would not seek remedies for the conflict in this proceeding. … DWR simply sat silent, proclaiming only that it would not file a motion to disqualify the Somach firm in this proceeding.”
Nine months later, DWR filed a sweeping disqualification motion in Superior Court, claiming the alleged conflict extends to all matters “related” to the Delta Conveyance Project.
Kelly described the scope of DWR’s claims as “staggering.” In a July 2025 letter, DWR demanded information about whether the attorney at issue had any involvement in the following matters:
- CDWR Environmental Impact Cases (3rd DCA C100302) and associated trial cases
- Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District et al. v. Department of Water Resources (ten consolidated trial cases)
- County of Sacramento, et al. v. DWR (Case No. 24WM000014)
- City of Stockton v. DWR (Case No. 24WM000009)
- Sacramento Area Sewer District v. DWR (Case No. 24WM000012)
- Sierra Club et al. v. Department of Water Resources (3rd DCA)
- County of Sacramento et al. v. Delta Stewardship Council et al. (Case No. 25WM000030)
- CDWR v. All Interested Persons (validation action, Case No. 25CV000704)
- Central Delta Water Agency v. CDWR (Case No. 34-2022-80003920)
- Central Delta Water Agency v. CDWR (Case No. 34-2020-80003457)
- Work related to the 2024–2026 Proposed Geotechnical Activities Certification of Consistency and associated DSC Appeal
- Work related to Governor’s trailer bill language associated with the Delta Conveyance Project
- Work related to the Delta Conveyance Project Audit Request by Assemblymember Ransom and Senator Jerry McNerney and the associated Joint Legislative Audit Committee meeting
Kelly posed the critical question DWR has not answered:
“If the Superior Court agrees with DWR and finds that the Somach firm has violated California Rule of Professional Conduct 1.10 and is disqualified, based on an imputed conflict, from anything ‘substantially’ related to the DCP, can the Somach firm participate in this proceeding? If not, what does that mean for this proceeding?”
He went further, suggesting a possible strategic choice:
“One wonders whether DWR carefully chose to say it was waiving its remedies in this proceeding—with the knowledge that, if a court determined Somach did indeed have a conflict for all DCP related matters, that Somach would be ethically obligated to withdraw from representation in this proceeding as well.”
What Today’s Ruling Does
The stay does not resolve whether DWR’s conflict allegations have merit. That question is set for March 20, 2026.
What the stay does accomplish is preserve the integrity of the CEQA proceedings while that determination is made.
The State Water Board water rights hearing continues for now. Whether the Administrative Hearing Officer will grant a parallel stay in that proceeding, and whether DWR’s Superior Court motion will ultimately force Somach to withdraw from all Delta Conveyance-related matters regardless of forum, remains open.
As Dan Kelly concluded:
“Whatever the strategy, the appropriate thing to do now, to attempt to preserve the integrity of this proceeding, is to implement a stay until the court decides the conflict issue presented by DWR.”
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