Somach Simmons & Dunn | Attorneys at Law

Richard S. Deitchman (“Rich”) is licensed in Oregon and California and focuses his practice on water rights and natural resources, including litigation in state and federal courts. With both a technical and legal background, Rich enjoys the interplay of issues that involve, for example, a water balance computer model and a 1909 water code.

Rich has worked on water rights issues that impact Oregon, Southern and Northern California, Texas, and New Mexico.  He is well-versed in the variety of water laws that affect water users and suppliers in the western United States, including pre-water code rights, reclamation law, tribal water law, the intersection of federal and state water rights, interstate compacts, groundwater law, and issues created from the impact of drought.  Rich is actively involved in the ongoing Klamath Basin Adjudication, and other matters involving water users on the Oregon-California border.

With a master’s degree in hydrology, Rich can work effectively with water experts, such as environmental engineers and agricultural economists, to pinpoint scientific and economic factors that play significant roles in water cases.  He also plays a key role in determining ways that litigation procedural issues can affect the results of water litigation.  Included in his experience is work preparing a water rights case that is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Rich’s education has taken him to various areas of the country, including New York, Wisconsin, and Oregon, and he enjoys continuing friendships in those areas.  One long-distance affiliation he has maintained is a volunteer board position with a nonprofit in New York designed to raise funds to help children attend outdoor camp—an experience he had as a child that he enjoys passing on to others.