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When researching an attorney, some people like to skim the basics and some people like to dig into the details. This page contains detailed background about Richard M. Ross's education and work experience.

Richard M. Ross has practiced law for thirty-five years in Sacramento, has been awarded Martindale-Hubbell's highest rating (AV), and been listed in its Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. He represents a broad spectrum of clients, primarily in matters involving California government, the environment, land use, health, food & drugs and agriculture. He has litigated hundreds of matters in six western states, and has worked with California government during seven governors' administrations, starting as an agricultural inspector in 1964.

Following graduation from law school in 1973 Mr. Ross joined the California Department of Health as house counsel under Governor Reagan and continued there under Governor Brown. He was primary counsel to the Prepaid Health Plan (HMO), Medi-Cal, and Licensing and Certification Divisions. He was the attorney assigned to drafting of the State's health facility and community care facility licensing regulations, and was instrumental in creating the current regulatory system for managed care. He was counsel to the seismic safety board, the health planning program, the investigations section, and parts of the public health program which included food and drug and toxics regulation. He drafted, analyzed and negotiated legislation, contracts and regulations; provided legal advice on operations problems; conducted or appeared before numerous public and legislative hearings; advised the Director, the Secretary of Health and Welfare, and the Governor on health care law; and supervised litigation by outside counsel.

From 1977 until 1986 Mr. Ross served as a Deputy Attorney General in the California Department of Justice. He acted as counsel for approximately twenty state agencies administering health, education and welfare programs, and as legal advisor to the California Advisory Health Council (a 21-member board appointed by the Governor, Assembly and Senate). In addition to providing representation to client agencies, he served on various task forces and coordinated Justice Department matters involving sects, attorneys' fees, federal audit exceptions, and judicial response to California's first major budget impasse. He supervised the seven paralegals who drafted all health facility licensing pleadings used statewide, and drafted legislation related to licensing enforcement. As the Department of Health increased it focus on toxic pollution, his involvement in that area increased also. In 1983 he filed the first action under the California Superfund law.

Based upon his involvement in the emerging field of toxics regulation and his extensive litigation experience, Governor Deukmejian named Mr. Ross to a statutorily created two year position to coordinate enforcement of hazardous waste laws in California (January 1986 - 1988). In that position he chaired the California Hazardous Waste Strike Force (comprised of 13 state agencies); founded the state's hazardous waste investigations office; was a founding director of the Western States Hazardous Waste Project formed by eleven western states to share enforcement data and training; provided training, investigative and litigation support to prosecutors and enforcement agencies throughout the west; and drafted a number of hazardous waste control statutes.

After his appointment expired, he opened a Sacramento office for Los Angeles based Parker, Milliken, Clark, O'Hara & Samuelian and served as their resident counsel managing diverse governmental issues and statewide litigation. He was primary counsel for the Los Angeles County Flood Control District in the 256 law firm litigation over subsidence of Big Rock Mesa at Malibu and spent much of his time working in the Los Angeles office.

In 1990 he joined Sacramento's largest firm, McDonough, Holland & Allen, to head the firm's administrative agency practice, and chair the firm's Toxics Practice Group. In 1991 he was named co-chair the firm's Environmental Law Section. In 1995 Richard Ross left the large-firm environment to open his own office.Although thirty-five years of experience makes it easier to find workable solutions to problems, it is occasionally necessary to seek judicial clarification. Mr. Ross has litigated in the state courts of Wyoming, Montana and in forty California counties. He has appeared in the Court of Appeal in the First, Third and Fifth Districts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and in the Supreme Courts of California, Wyoming and the United States of America. He has also appeared in the Federal District Courts for the Eastern, Northern and Central Districts of California, the District of Wyoming, District of Idaho, and District of Oregon, as well as before numerous administrative tribunals including the United States Department of Health and Human Services' Grant Appeals Board.

Mr. Ross has a baccalaureate  in economics from the University of California at Davis (1968), and a juris doctorate from the University of Wyoming (1973). During law school he was a research assistant for Colorado State University. In 1991 and 1992 he taught environmental law for the University of California's Orientation in American Law Program. He has presented lectures to the Association of State and Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials, the Western States Hazardous Waste Project, the League of California Cities, the Groundwater Resources Association of California, the California and Los Angeles chambers of commerce, and numerous other bar, civic and trade organizations.

Mr. Ross was counsel to the California Advisory Health Council (Health and Safety Code § 437) from 1977 through its abolition in 1985; counsel to the Health Facility Advisory Board (Health and Safety Code § 1272) and the Committee on Community Care Facilities (Health and Safety Code § 1532) during drafting of the state's initial licensing regulations; and he was a founding member of the State Long-Term Care Ombudsman Advisory Council (Welfare and Institutions Code § 9740) and served from 1985 until 1988. He was co-chair of the California Chamber of Commerce's toxics subcommittee for many years. He is past chair of the Sacramento County Bar Association's Health Care Law Section, and is a member of the county and state bar environmental law sections, the Pacific Coast and National Cutting Horse Associations, the Placer County Farm Bureau, the Tahoe and California Cattleman's Associations and the National Cattlemen's Beef Association.  He is immediate past president of the Tahoe Cattlemen's Association and represents agriculture on the Placer County Conservation Plan's biological stakeholders committee; he serves on the boards of the Tahoe Cattlemen's Association, the California Cattlemen's Association, Protecting Our State's Stewards, Environment, and Economy (POSSEE, the cattlemen's legal defense fund), and the Braithwaite – Bucktrout Memorial Foundation of Williamsburg, VA (for which he is also 1st  Vice President and Counsel).

Since entering private practice, Mr. Ross' clients have included Lincoln Savings, U.S. Bank, Circus Circus, Paramount, Kirk Douglas, Snapple, Quaker Oats, Eastern Foods, Anheuser-Busch, C & H Sugar, Circle K Corporation, Armour Pharmaceuticals, Warner-Lambert, Rhône-Poulenc Rorer Pharmaceuticals, Upjohn, Abbott Laboratories, Johnson + Johnson, Pfizer, KOS Pharmaceuticals, Savient Pharmaceuticals, Cardinal Health, Baxter Healthcare, Bristol-Myers Squibb, SmithKline Beecham, PhRMA, American Electro-Finishing, Whittaker Corporation, The Williams Company, N.E.C., Monadnock Corporation, the County of Los Angeles, the California Departments of General Services, Fish & Game and Water Resources, the Sutter – Yuba Mosquito and Vector Control Agency, the California Association of Health Maintenance Organizations, the Fur Breeders Agricultural Cooperative, Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Assn., Mountain View Orchards, Onstott Dusters, H&H Ship Service Company, Bay Area Environmental, Brisbane Recycling Co., Sheldon Oil, Sutter Health, Del Norte Clinics, Organic Consultants, Inc., Athena Cosmetics, PerkinElmer, Scilacci Farming, Ferrari Farms, R. L. Niello, and Sacramento Regional Transit.