Simeon M. Herskovits

Simeon M. Herskovits was a public-interest and environmental attorney whose water-law advocacy shaped how the arid West weighs the public interest and the environment in allocating its most precious resource. A native of New England, he earned his undergraduate degree at Columbia University and his law degree at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He began his career in corporate practice on Wall Street before turning to public-interest work, joining the Western Environmental Law Center in Taos, New Mexico, where he took up the defense of Spanish land-grant acequia communities and other environmental causes.

Herskovits later founded the firm Advocates for Community and Environment (ACE) and, admitted to the State Bar of Nevada in 2009, became a constant and respected presence in Nevada's courtrooms. Representing rural counties and the Great Basin Water Network, he spent roughly two decades challenging the Southern Nevada Water Authority's proposal to pipe rural groundwater to Las Vegas, prevailing in a series of legal battles that ultimately led to the project being shelved. His work also included leading the defense against the Cadiz pipeline project in the Mojave Desert.

Known for a calm but assertive style, Herskovits helped set Nevada Supreme Court precedent on due process rights in water matters and played a pivotal role in the landmark Mineral County v. Lyon County litigation addressing Nevada's public trust obligations. Licensed in both Nevada and New Mexico, he was remembered by colleagues as a principled advocate whose legal strategies moved judges, lawmakers, and the public over nearly three decades. He died in February 2025 at the age of 61.