Michael Colantuano, JD
Attorney
Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC
Michael Colantuono is an attorney at Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC; President of the Board of Trustees of the State Bar of California; City Attorney for the Cities of Auburn and Grass Valley; and Agency or General Counsel for a range of public agencies across the state.
Michael has specialized in municipal law since 1989, after graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University and receiving his law degree from University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 1988, graduating first in his class.
Today, Michael is perhaps California's leading expert on the law of local government revenues, handling 10 cases on that subject in the California Supreme Court since 2004. Two successive Speakers of the California Assembly appointed him as a member of the Board of Trustees of the California State Bar, regulating the practice of law in California and his fellow Trustees elected him Treasurer and President of the Bar. Michael has expertise in a broad range of areas of concern to local governments in California, including a wide range of public finance issues involving taxes, assessments, fees and charges.
He serves as City Attorney for the Cities of Auburn and Grass Valley and as Agency or General Counsel for the Auburn Urban Development Agency Successor Agency, the Grass Valley Redevelopment Agency Successor Agency, the San Diego and Calaveras County LAFCOs, the First Five Yuba Commission, the Oak Tree Park and Recreation District, the Garden Valley, Higgins, North San Juan, Ophir Hill, Penn Valley, and Rough & Ready Fire Districts and the Tahoe Forest Hospital District and has held a number of other positions of service to local government.
