Daniel J. Curtin, Jr.,

1933–2006

Daniel J. Curtin, Jr., a Walnut Creek, California, resident and legendary land use lawyer, died of natural causes on November 30 in San Francisco. He was seventy-three.

For nearly fifty years, Dan was the most instrumental figure in shaping land use and local government law in California. A prolific writer and speaker, Dan taught land use law throughout the state to local government staffers, elected officials, lawyers, judges, and others. He authored several major publications, including Curtin’s California Land Use and Planning Law, currently in its 27th edition, the legal treatise California Subdivision Map Act and the Development Process,Bargaining for Development: A Handbook on Development Agreements, Annexation Agreements, Land Development Conditions, Vested Rights, and the Provision of Public Facilities, and the Subdivision Map Act Manual, along with hundreds of articles for other publications. Dan also was in constant demand as a speaker on land use and municipal law topics statewide, nationwide, and internationally. In 2005, Dan spoke at the World Jurist Association’s 22nd Biennial Congressin China’s Great Hall of the People on how local governments can use the general plan to guide local land use decisions.

Dan’s many professional accomplishments and devotion to land use and planning earned him national accolades. In 2003, he was presented with the Jefferson Fordham Lifetime Achievement Award by the American Bar Association’s Section of State and Local Government Law for dedicating more than forty years to advancing the practice of state and local government law. In 1992, Dan earned the International Municipal Lawyers Association’s Charles S. Rhyne Award for Lifetime Achievement in Municipal Law for his leadership and service to the legal profession and for his contributions to IMLA and the municipal law community. In 1988, Dan was awarded the American Planning Association’s Distinguished Leadership Award, recognizing more than two decades of writing and teaching and his encouragement of and support for planning ideas and education.

The dean of California land use lawyers, Dan leaves an enduring professional legacy in the generations of lawyers and planners he taught, mentored, inspired, and befriended. He was selfless with his time and facilitated a web of relationships that will continue far into the future.

Dan earned the respect and admiration of his peers, who considered him in the highest regard. His intelligence, thoughtfulness, passion, and decency set the highest standard of professional practice. Those of us who knew and worked with Dan were blessed for the opportunity and honored to have been a part of his wide-ranging community of friends and colleagues. Dan touched us with his unsurpassed knowledge, enthusiasm, dedication, kindness, and generosity of spirit.

Dan was a vibrant person and remained active and engaged throughout his life. An avid traveler, he visited more than sixty-five countries and voyaged on thirty-nine cruises. Dan traveled to Albania, Hungary, Australia, Ireland, and China, to offer his expertise in land use law to the international community. As an active member of the World Jurist Association, Dan promoted the rule of law to the international community during the association’s biennial international conferences. Dan also actively participated in the American Bar Association’s Central and Eastern European Law Initiative to promote law reform in emerging governments.

A native of San Francisco, Dan was raised by Irish immigrant parents. He earned his A.B. in political science from the University of San Francisco in 1954, and his J.D. from the University of San Francisco School of Law in 1957. Dan served as an officer in the U.S. Army from 1956 to 1964.

After graduating from law school and completing his military service commitment, Dan began his legal career as assistant secretary for the California State Senate, and then served as counsel to the Assembly Committee on Local Government. Dan served for four years as deputy city attorney for Richmond, and in 1965 was appointed as the first full-time city attorney of Walnut Creek, where he served until 1982. He subsequently went into private law practice, and became a partner of the firm that is now Bingham McCutchen LLP, where he practiced land use and local government law for more than 20 years.

—Bryan W. Wenter