Rhett B. Larson, Counsel at our Phoenix law office
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Rhett B. Larson

Counsel
Phoenix
Services
Environmental and Natural Resources
Biography

Rhett Larson advises clients on complex water rights, water resource management and regulatory matters, as Counsel in the Environmental and Natural Resources group, where he focuses his practice on water law. Rhett helps clients navigate the legal, business and policy considerations associated with water resources.

Rhett brings extensive experience in water law and policy, including matters involving water rights, water quality, water resource development and management, and disputes over water resources. His experience includes work involving Arizona water rights adjudications and the Colorado River Basin, as well as water issues that cross jurisdictional and international boundaries. He works with clients to assess water-related risks, develop practical strategies and navigate evolving legal and regulatory requirements.

Additionally, Rhett serves as a law professor and water law and policy expert at Arizona State University. His work has included advising public and private stakeholders on water resource issues and conducting research on emerging challenges affecting water supplies and water rights. His experience at the intersection of law, science and water policy gives him a practical perspective on complex water matters and the competing interests that often shape them.

Rhett earned an M.Sc. in Water Science, Policy and Management from the University of Oxford, a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School and a B.A. from Brigham Young University.

Credentials

Bar Admissions

  • Arizona


Court Admissions

  • Supreme Court of Arizona
  • United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
  • United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
  • United States District Court, District of Arizona
  • United States Supreme Court


Education

  • The University of Chicago Law School (J.D.)
    • S.K. Yee Scholar and Mohlman Scholar
  • The University of Oxford (M.S., Water Science, Policy, and Management)
    • Weidenfeld Scholar
  • Brigham Young University (B.A., History)
    • Bicentennial Scholarship

Languages

Arabic (Elementary Proficiency)
Spanish

Experience

Previous Professional Experience

  • Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law, Professor
  • Rhett Larson Water Consulting, LLC, Founder and Manager
  • Gallagher & Kennedy, P.A., Associate
  • Perkins Coie Brown & Bain, P.A., Associate

 

 

Professional Memberships and Activities

  • American Bar Association (2005)
  • International Law Association (2010)
  • International Water Law Association (2010)
  • International Water Resources Association (2010)

Community Involvement

  • Commission, Arizona Navigable Streams Adjudication Commission
  • Board of Directors, Arizona Mexico Commission
  • Water Conservation Grant Committee, Arizona Water Infrastructure Finance Authority

Representative Presentations and Publications

  • Day Zero: How Cities Run Out of Water, Author, Cambridge University Press (forthcoming 2027)
  • “Extraterrestrial Water Rights,” Author, in Water Law and Technology (Imad Antoine, ed.), Routledge Press (forthcoming 2027)
  • “Legal Lessons for Avoiding Day Zero,” Co-Author, Texas A&M Journal of Property Law (forthcoming 2026)
  • “The National Obligation to Mexico in the Colorado River Basin,” Co-Author, Arizona State Law Journal (forthcoming 2026)
  • Commentary on the U.N. Watercourses Convention, Co-Editor (with Vanessa Casado Pérez), Edward Elgar (forthcoming 2026)
  • “The Private Sector’s Role in Arizona’s Water Future,” Co-Author, 44 Stanford Environmental Law Journal 243 (2025)
  • “Water Markets,” Author, in The Water Diplomacy Handbook (Shafiqul Islam, Kevin Smith, Martina Klimes, and Aaron Salzberg, eds.), Routledge Press (2025)
  • Waters and Water Rights, 4th Edition, Co-Author (with Robert Beck, Amy Kelley, and Taiawagi Helton), LexisNexis
  • “Water Markets,” Author, in The Water Diplomacy Handbook (Shafiqul Islam, Kevin Smith, Martina Klimes, and Aaron Salzberg, eds.), Routledge Press (2025)
  • Participatory Convergence: Integrating and Participatory Action Research, 63 MINERVA 535 (2024) (with Wutich, A., Castro-Diaz, L, Landes, L, Li, W.W., Westerhoff, P., Marcos-Hernandez, M., Hossain, M.J., Tsai, Y., Lucero, R., White, D., Hanemann, M.).
  • “Quantifying Winters Rights,” Co-Author, 48 William & Mary Environmental Law & Policy Review 659 (2024)
  • “Advancing Water Security in Colonias,” Co-Author, 54 Arizona State Law Journal 853 (2023)
  • Water Equity and Prior Appropriation in the West, 33 WESTERN LEGAL HISTORY 1 (2023).
  • A Research Agenda for Water Law, Co-Editor (with Vanessa Casado Pérez), Edward Elgar (2023)
  • “Water Insecurity in the Global North: A Review of Experiences in U.S. Colonias Communities Along the Mexico Border,” Co-Author (with A. Wutich, W. Jepson, C. Velasco, A. Roque, Z. Gu, M. Hanemann, M.J. Hossain, L. Landes, W.W. Li, O. Morales, N. Patwoary, S. Porter, Y. Tsai, M. Zheng, and P. Westerhoff), 9 WIREs Water 1-19 (2022)
  • “Governing Complexity: Integrating Science, Governance, and Law to Manage Accelerating Change in the Globalized Commons,” Co-Author (with Barbara Cosens, JB Ruhl, Niko Soininen, Lance Gunderson, Alex Camacho, Brian Chaffin, Robin Craig, Holly Doremus, Robert Glicksman, Antti Belinkij, Anna-Stiina Heiskanen, Jukka Similä, and Thorsten Blenckner), 118 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 1-9 (2021)
  • “La Resolución de la ONU sobre el Derecho Humano al Agua Después de una Década,” Author, 27 Iuris Dictio 21 (2021)
  • “Water and Security,” Author, in The Encyclopedia of Environmental Law (Joyeeta Gupta and Joseph Dellapenna, eds.), Edward Elgar Publishing (2021)
  • “Water Law and the Response to COVID-19,” Author, 45 Water International 716 (2020)
  • “Forestry Management and Water Law: Comparing Ecuador and Arizona,” Co-Author (with Andrés Martinez Moscoso), 44 Water International 337-353 (2019) (included as a selected chapter in Legal Perspectives on Bridging Science and Policy (Mara Tignino, Raya Marina Stephan, Renée Martin-Nagle, and Owen McIntyre, eds.), Routledge Press (2020))
  • “The Human Right to Water,” Co-Author (with Kelsey Leonard and Richard Rushforth), in Water Science, Policy, and Management: The Global Challenge (Edmund Penning-Rowsell, Dustin Garrick, Jim Hall, Rob Hope, and Jocelyne Hughes, eds.), Routledge Press (2020)
  • Just Add Water: Solving the World’s Problems Using Its Most Precious Resource, Author, Oxford University Press (2020)
  • “Slicing and Lumping Water Rights,” Co-Author, University of Chicago Law Review Online (2020)
  • “Fracking and Transboundary Groundwater Management,” Co-Author, 36 Environmental and Planning Law Journal 502 (2019)
  • “The Big Dam Question: How Law Defines the River,” Co-Author (with Dilip da Cunha), 4 Power & Place 48 (Spring 2019)
  • “The Energy/Water/Food Nexus – An Introduction,” Co-Author (with Cameron Holley and Diana Bowman), 59 Jurimetrics 1 (2019) (co-editors of symposium issue for PLuS Alliance Water/Food/Energy Nexus Symposium at Arizona State University, January 2018)
  • “Inter-Jurisdictional Water Allocation in Federal Systems: Lessons for International Water Law,” Co-Author (with Dan Tarlock), in The Research Handbook on International Water Law (Stephen McCaffrey and Christina Leb, eds.), Edward Elgar (2019)
  • “Global Climate Change and the Reallocation of Water,” Author, in The Oxford Encyclopedia of Water Resources Management and Policy (David McQueen, ed.), Oxford University Press (2019)
  • “Law, Science, and the Colorado River,” Co-Author, 59 Jurimetrics 83 (2019) (invited paper at the PLuS Alliance Water/Food/Energy Nexus Symposium at Arizona State University, January 2018)
  • “Tarzan to the Terminator: Western Water’s Story Through the Lens of the Los Angeles River,” Author, 3 Power & Place 40 (Spring 2018) (published transcript of invited presentation at the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s Annual Critical Conservation Colloquia)
  • “Constitutional Obstacles to the Resolution of General Stream Adjudications,” Co-Author, 8 Arizona Journal of Environmental Law & Policy 52 (2018)
  • “New Water for Water Dispute Resolution,” Co-Author, 4 Texas A&M University Journal of Property Law 193 (2018)
  • “Unclouding Arizona’s Water Future,” Co-Author (with Brian Payne), 49 Arizona State Law Journal 465 (2017)
  • “Augmented Water Law,” Co-Author, 48 Texas Tech Law Review 757
  • “Water Security,” Author, 112 Northwestern Law Review 139 (2017)
  • “Inter-State Lessons for International Water Law,” Author, 2.3 Research Perspectives on International Water Law 1-82 (2017)
  • “Law in the Time of Cholera,” Author, 92 Notre Dame Law Review 1271 (2017)
  • “Governing Water Augmentation under the U.N. Watercourse Convention,” Author, 41 Water International 866 (2016) (selected chapter in Legal Mechanisms for Water Resources in the Third Millennium (M. Nanni, S. Burchi, A. D’Andrea, and G. Eckstein, eds.), Routledge)
  • “Bankrupt Rivers,” Co-Author (with Kelly Kennedy), 49 U.C. Davis Law Review 1335 (2016)
  • “Adapting Human Rights,” Author, 26 Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum 1 (2016)