Deborah Espinosa, M.A., J.D.
Rural Development Institute
1411 Fourth Avenue Suite 910
Seattle, Washington USA 98101
(206) 528-5880 / Fax (206) 528-5881
deborahe@rdiland.org

KEY QUALIFICATIONS
Deborah Espinosa is a land law and policy specialist with expertise in land tenure policy, legal, and regulatory reform; land-related conflicts and dispute resolution; land use planning; land titling and registration; public lands management; and women’s rights to land. She also has broad expertise in environmental and natural resources law, contract law, regulatory law, and commercial law. Ms. Espinosa has performed rural fieldwork to determine existing land tenure conditions and customary law to inform recommendations for new land policies and legislation, with particular emphasis on ensuring women’s access to land, and surveyed the extent to which conditions in the field conform to new and existing legal and regulatory frameworks. She has analyzed a variety of proposed and existing land laws and policies, assessed the nature and severity of land disputes as well as women and vulnerable groups’ access to dispute resolution, and managed legal aid offices.

EDUCATION

Certificate in Career Training, 2006, Rocky Mountain School of Photography, Missoula, Montana

J.D., 1998, University of Washington School of Law, Seattle, Washington

M.A., 1995, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington

B.A., 1989, University of California, Berkeley, California

• Senior Technical Advisor / Land Law and Policy Specialist, Land Dispute Management Project, USAID/CMM, Kigali, Rwanda. Following the pilot formalization of land rights, leading a land dispute management project designed to support and strength local dispute resolution institutions in two pilot areas. Partnering with a local NGO, the project is training and mentoring those responsible for resolving land-related disputes on conflict resolution and applicable land laws, including the laws governing the land rights of women and children; implementing a public information and awareness campaign regarding peaceful resolution of land disputes; and drafting a procedure for expediting the fair and transparent resolution of land disputes. Included conducting an assessment of land conflicts and of women and vulnerable groups’ access to local dispute resolution. (May 2006-present)
  
• Land Law and Policy Consultant, Burundi Legal Assistance and Conflict Resolution, USAID, Bujumbura, Burundi. Providing land law and policy assistance to the Government of Burundi, including review of draft land code, inheritance law, field research on the nature and extent of women’s land rights and their access to dispute resolution mechanisms. (November 2006-present)
  
• Land Law and Policy Consultant, Rwanda Land Law and Policy Assistance, USAID, Kigali, Rwanda. With the passage of the new land law, providing assistance to the ministry of natural resources on the development of needed implementing laws and regulations. Assistance is focusing on land titling and registration, with particular emphasis on ensuring recognition and registration of women’s land rights, land use planning, surveying and valuation, all at the request of the ministry. Also providing assistance to the Minister of Agriculture on development of alternative farming models that will encourage consolidation of land use and collaboration with private investors.(September 2006-present)
  
• Land Tenure and Property Rights Trainer, Issues and Best Practices for USAID, Washington, DC. Conducted two sessions at a four-day land tenure and property rights training for USAID/Washington staff, MCC staff, and State Department staff. Presented on land formalization and consolidation of land use in Rwanda and on sequencing of land tenure and property rights interventions during project design. (April 2008)
  
• Land Law and Policy Consultant, Property Reform Sequence Study and Strategy, USAID. Member of four-person team that tested a draft tool for sequencing land tenure and property rights reforms during project design, including significant field interviews of ex-combatants, internally-displaced persons, orphans, traditional elders, women, etc. In Burundi. (March 2008)
  
• Legal and Policy Consultant, Women and Property Rights – Best Practices, USAID. Member of team designing a training module on gender and land, as well as providing short-term assistance to selected USAID Missions. These activities will culminate in the development of a gender land tenure/property rights assessment tool for USAID Missions.(November 2006 to present)

Associate Attorney, Marten Law Group PLLC, Seattle, WA (2002-2004, 2005-2006). Represented corporate and municipal clients in resolving environmental, land use, and natural resource disputes through litigation in federal and state courts and alternative dispute resolution; research and draft pre-trial motions and appellate briefs; conduct written and oral discovery; represented commercial lender in two-year action to foreclose on timber property in the State of Hawaii

Assistant City Attorney, Seattle City Attorney's Office, Seattle, WA (2004-2005). Provided legal advice and representation to municipal water purveyor regarding environmental and natural resource matters, particularly related to cleanup of hazardous waste, water quality, and tribal hunting and fishing rights.

Attorney, Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Dep't of the Interior, Wash., D.C. (2001-2002). Honors Program Attorney representing federal natural resource agencies in negotiations, coordinating litigation strategy with the U.S. Department of Justice, drafting and/or reviewing legislation, regulations, and contracts, preparing legal opinions, and furnishing informal legal advice; matters were related to public land, water rights, and wildlife issues.

Judicial Law Clerk to the Honorable Anne Ellington, Washington State Court of Appeals, Seattle, WA (1999-2001). Reviewed litigants' briefs; researched and analyzed applicable law; prepared bench memoranda recommending case disposition to panel of judges; drafted appellate opinions.

Legal and Policy Consultant, Russia Policy and Legal Advice on Land Privatization and Land Market Development, RDI/USAID, Moscow, Russia (1998-1999). Provided consultant services on policy, legal, and administrative issues of farm reorganization and land market development in Russia; advised on draft Land Code among other draft laws; managed two rural legal aid centers; conducted farm-level field research; closed RDI's Moscow office.

Summer Associate, Baker & McKenzie, Almaty, Kazakhstan (1998). Researched and drafted memoranda on foreign government's liability for job-related death of independent contractor and effect of liability waiver under Kazakh law and windup issues under the law on joint-stock companies; drafted compensation agreement.

Research Assistant, Rural Development Institute, Seattle, WA (1993-1997, 1999). Researched and drafted memoranda regarding legal issues of land tenure reform, land market development, sale and lease of land, mortgage, farm reorganization, eminent domain, and women's access to land, particularly in Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, and China, drafted handbook on rural taxation for Kyrgyz farmers; drafted research manual for RDI research assistants; trained research assistants.

Bonderman International Travel Fellow, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan (1997). Grant to work with environmental law public interest NGOs in former Soviet Union. Highlights included: translated documents on public participation during environmental decision-making process, researched and drafted part of the legal analysis for the World Bank's Sectoral Environmental Action Plan for the Oil Refining Sector of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russia); translated and analyzed law on eminent domain as applied to creation of national park (Almaty, Kazakhstan); conducted farm-level field research in Kyrgyzstan regarding development of land market, advised land officials of same.

Teaching Fellow, University of Washington School of Law, Seattle, WA (1996-1997). Taught legal research, analysis and writing to first-year law students.

On-Site Tour Coordinator, Alaska Airlines, Khabarovsk, Russia (1993). Managed implementation of tour program through Russian Far East, Siberia, and China; supervised ten Russian tour guides; mitigated impact of logistical and medical crises.

“Local Governments Now Allowed to Participate in the Development and Selection of a Superfund Remedy” in Section on Environment, Natural Resources, and Energy, Superfund and Natural Resource Damages Litigation, American Bar Association (with Jones) (2006).

Environmental Regulation of Russia's Offshore Oil and Gas Industry & Its Implications for the International Petroleum Market, 6 PAC. RIM L. & POL. J. 647 (reprinted in World Bank, Sectoral Environmental Action Plan for the Oil Refining Sector of the Russian Federation (1997)).

Admitted to the Washington State Bar Association, 1998
World Peace thru Law Section, Washington State Bar Association
International Law Section, American Bar Association

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