Bethany J. Ring image
Download vCard
(951) 680-0100

Bethany J. Ring

Associate


Bethany Ring is an associate attorney with the firm. In addition to her legal education and accomplishments, Ms. Ring also holds a graduate degree in mathematics and brings an insider’s perspective from her seventeen years of forensic experience in the engineering and environmental sciences, including hydrology, flooding, earth movement, and groundwater transport/contamination.

Ms. Ring’s integration of law and science is especially valuable to clients whose cases require complex problem solving, analysis of intricate data, and evaluation of expert investigations for scientific, environmental, and regulatory issues. Additionally, she can provide clients with understandable explanations of scientific concepts during various phases of litigation and can advance legal strategies that depend on technical expertise.

Ms. Ring’s work has been published in both legal and scientific journals following several decades in forensic civil engineering where she specialized in hydrology and hydraulics. Her work ranged from Master Plans of Drainage for Southern California cities and counties, to conducting analysis and research on water-related matters in preparation for litigation, to management of case project teams for expert witness foundation development. She has worked on litigation matters involving surface flow analysis, including debris flows, mud flows, rock falls, flooding, flash floods, low water crossings, vehicular hydroplaning, stream gage analysis, flood stage analysis, and channel capacity analysis.

Ms. Ring has also dealt with structural failures leading to both sudden and gradual inundations, such as dam breaks, levee breaches, channel over-topping, subsidence, landslides, and sink holes. In association with many of these analyses, she has studied extreme storm events, rainfall return frequencies, RADAR calibration and ground-truthing. Ms. Ring rounds out her experience having examined groundwater contamination, groundwater transport, chemical degradation in groundwater, infiltration, and leaching. While Ms. Ring has spent significant time analyzing and modeling various hydrologic and hydraulic features, she also has considerable experience in the field ferreting out the physical evidence often necessary to substantiate expert witness analysis.

While attending Chapman University Fowler School of Law, Ms. Ring earned top academic honors in Legal Research & Writing, Civil Procedure Lab, Constitutional Law, Wills & Trusts, and Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic. Working with the Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic, Ms. Ring drafted and submitted three United States Supreme Court briefs, two in support of writ of certiorari (Valent v. Saul, Guedes v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) and one on merits (June Medical Services v. Gee). She has had two articles published in the Chapman Law Review and was recently invited to speak at the Chapman Law Review Symposium on the Non-Delegation and Chevron Deference Doctrines.

    • March 2023 – present, Orange County Waste Management Commissioner.
    • 2020 – present, Associate Attorney, Graves & King LLP
    • 2019 – 2020, Law Clerk, Graves & King LLP
    • 2018 – 2019, Law Clerk, Meyers Nave
    • 2017 – 2020, Research Assistant, Donald Kochan, Associate Dean for Research & Faculty Development, Chapman University Fowler School of Law
    • 2002 – 2017, Senior Forensic Scientist, Hromadka & Associates
    • 2001 – 2002, Forensic Scientist, Integral Consultants, Inc
    • 2000 – 2001, Scientist, Exponent Failure Analysis Associates, Inc
    • Riverside Bar Association
    • Orange County Bar Association
    • Los Angeles County Bar Association
    • American Planning Association
    • Environmental Law Institute
    • American Bar Association – Environment, Energy and Resources Section, State & Local Govt Section, Science & Technology Law Section
    • American Planning Ass’n, Planning and Law Division 36th Annual Smith-Babcock- Williams Student Writing Competition, 3rd place nationally
    • CALI Excellence for the Future awards (highest grade in law school class): Civil Procedure, Legal Research & Writing, Wills & Trusts, First Amendment & Equal Protection, Constitutional Jurisprudence Clinic
    • Ring, B., Chevron Deference: An Empirical Review of Rigor of Application at the District Court Level, Chapman Law Review (in print, Spring 2021)
    • Ring, B., Ripples in the Pond: United States Supreme Court Decision Impacts v. Reality, 23 Chapman Law Review 205 (Winter 2020)
    • Rao, P., Hromadka II, T.V., Huxley, C., Souders, D., Jordan, N., Yen, C.C., Bristow, E., Biering, C., Horton, S., Espinosa, B. (prior married surname), Assessment of Computer Modeling Accuracy in Floodplain Hydraulics, International Journal of Modeling and Simulation (December 20, 2016)
    • Espinosa, B., Hromadka II, T.V., Perez, R., Comparison of Radar Data Versus Rainfall Data, Methods X2 Elsevier (Oct 2015) e423-e431
    • Hromadka II, T.V., McInvale, D., Phillips, M., Espinosa, B., Assessment of Ice Volume Changes in the Cryosphere via Simplified Heat Transport Model, American Journal of Climate Change (December 2014) Vol. 3, No 5, p. 421-428
    • Hromadka II, T.V., McInvale, D., Gatzke, B., Phillips, M., Espinosa, B., A Cumulative Departure Model of the Cryosphere during the Pleistocene, ASCE Journal of Cold Regions Engineering (April 2014)
    • Hromadka II, T.V., Phillips, M., Rao, P., Espinosa, B., Hromadka III, T., Rainfall Infiltration Return Frequency Estimates, Journal of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (October 2013) p. 595-609
    • Hromadka II, T.V., Phillips, M., Rao, P., Espinosa, B., Perez, R., Barton, M., What Rainfall Return Frequency?, Journal of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (July 2013) Vol. 3, No. 3, p. 385-396
    • Espinosa, B., Water Quality Data for Los Angeles & Ventura Counties, Floodplain Management Conference – Lake Tahoe (September 23-26, 2001) (presentation)
    • Martelli, M., Johnston, B. (maiden name), Global attractivity and forward neural networks, Applied Mathematics Letters (1995) Vol. 9, No. 4, p. 77-83
    • California
    • Juris Doctor, Chapman University Fowler School of Law, 2020 (Cum Laude • Senior Symposium Editor, Chapman Law review 2019-2020 • Staff Editor, Chapman Law Review 2018-2019 • Honor Council Chair, 2019-2020 • Honor Council Committee, 2018-2019 • Office of Law School Advocate, 2017-2018)
    • Master of Arts, Mathematics, California State University Fullerton, 2001
    • Bachelor of Arts, Mathematics, California State University Fullerton, 1996