About us
Adriane Hofmeyr has extensive experience in public interest litigation, including environmental claims against state and federal agencies, adversarial administrative hearings, and appeals. She is licensed in Arizona, California, Colorado and South Africa, and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® 2017-2023 for Administrative/Regulatory Law. She is currently the president of the board of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, a non profit law firm that pursues cases with enduring social, public health, and environmental impacts statewide. Adriane is originally from South Africa, where she practiced law at the time that South Africa transformed to a constitutional democracy. This has given her an acute awareness of the power of law to protect against government overreach.
Notable cases and experience:
- Represent environmental non profit against the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality to protect surface waters and groundwaters in Santa Cruz, Arizona.
- Represent environmental non profit against the Bureau of Land Management challenging grazing leases on protected land in Cochise County, Arizona.
- Represent environmental non profit against mining company under the Clean Water Act.
- Represent environmental non profit against utility at the Arizona Corporation Commission to enforce Certificate of Environmental Compatibility.
- Represent landowners against the Arizona Department of Water Resources to overturn Irrigation Non Expansion Area in Mohave County, Arizona.
- Represent lease-holders against the Arizona Oil and Gas Conservation Commission to overturn granting of drilling permits.
- Assist clients in negotiations with government agencies.
- Represented child with disabilities at Court of Appeals against Arizona Department of Economic Security re-instating disability benefits (A.C. v. ADES, 249 P.3d 387 (App. 2020).
- Lead counsel in damages suit against the Arizona Board of Accountancy and Arizona State Board for Charter Schools leading to settlement.
- Lead counsel in suit against ADWR and Freeport Minerals Corporation that established standing to challenge the transfer of surface water rights in Arizona (ADWR v. Mohave County, 360 P.3d 1023 (2015)), and entitlement to attorneys’ fees (ADWR v. McClennen, 398 P.3d 108 (Ariz. App. 2017)).
- Lead counsel representing landowners in damages suit against the federal government caused by firefighting (Green v. United States, 630 F.3d 1245 (9th Cir. 2010)).
- Former Deputy District Attorney, Fourth Judicial District, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- Former In-House Counsel, Cape Town City Council, Cape Town, South Africa.
Memberships and Admissions:
- President of the Board, Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, current
- Executive Council, Appellate Practice Section, State Bar of Arizona, 2017-2022
- CLE Committee, Pima County Bar Association, 2015-2023
- Member, Arizona State Bar Administrative & Environmental Sections
- Part-time Professor of Practice, James E. Rogers College of Law • 2015-2018
- Commissioner, Pima County/Tucson Women’s Commission • 2014-2017
- Member, Morris K. Udall Inn of Court • 2011-2016
- State Bar of Arizona
- State Bar of Colorado
- State Bar of California
- Law Society of South Africa
Publications:
- LL.M Thesis: "Constitutional Interpretation under the New South African Order" (1998), exploring the democratic legitimacy of judicial review.
- "What the Constitution Means to Me," Guest Opinion, Arizona Daily Star, September 17, 2014.
Education:
B.A. (Latin and Legal Theory), LL.B • Rhodes University, South Africa
LL.M in Constitutional Law • University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
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