August 10 – Land Use – L17

The Takings Issue

Two titans of takings, who just happen to have profoundly opposing views of the world, have graciously agreed to discuss the latest developments and spar.  This will be the Great Debate of 2015.

 

Speakers:  John Echeverria, Robert Thomas, Mike Giaimo and Daniel Mandelker

 

Speakers:

 

John Echeverria is a Professor of Law at Vermont Law School where he teaches Property, Public Law and a wide range of environmental and natural resource law courses. Prior to joining the Vermont Law School faculty in 2009, he served for 12 years as Executive Director of the Georgetown Environmental Law & Policy Institute at Georgetown University Law Center. He also was General Counsel of the National Audubon Society and General Counsel and Conservation Director of American Rivers, Inc., and was an Associate for four years in the Washington, D.C. office of Hughes, Hubbard & Reed. He served for one year as law clerk to the Honorable Gerhard A. Gesell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia immediately after graduating from law school.

Professor Echeverria has written several books and numerous scholarly articles on environmental and natural resource law topics. He has published pieces for more general audiences in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Christian Science Monitor. He has represented state and local governments, environmental organizations, and planning groups in a variety of legal matters at all levels of the federal and state court systems. In 2007, Professor Echeverria received the Jefferson Fordham Advocacy Award from the American Bar Association to recognize outstanding excellence within the area of state and local government law over a lifetime of achievement. In addition to teaching at Vermont Law School, he has served as a Visiting Professor at Harvard Law School and Georgetown University Law Center.

Professor Echeverria received a JD degree from the Yale Law School. He received a Master’s degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as a BA degree from Yale College (summa cum laude).

Robert H. Thomas is a land use and appellate lawyer, and focuses on regulatory takings, eminent domain, water rights, and voting rights cases.  He has tried cases and appeals in Hawaii, California, and the federal courts. For a list of reported cases in which he’s been involved, go here.

Robert received his LLM, with honors, from Columbia Law School where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar, and his JD from the University of Hawaii School of Law where he served as editor of the Law Review. Robert taught law at the University of Santa Clara School of Law, and was an exam grader and screener for the California Committee of Bar Examiners.

He currently serves as the Chair of the Eminent Domain Law Committee of the American Bar Association’s Section on State & Local Government Law.

He is the Hawaii member of Owners’ Counsel of America, a national network of the most experienced eminent domain and property rights lawyers. Membership in OCA is by invitation only, and is limited to a single attorney from each state. He is also the Co-Planning Chair (with Joe Waldo, of Virginia) of the American Law Institute-Continuing Legal Education‘s annual program on condemnation law, Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation. Robert is also the Managing Attorney for the Pacific Legal Foundation Hawaii Center, a non-profit legal foundation dedicated to protecting property rights and individual liberties. He is listed in Best Lawyers in Eminent Domain and Condemnation Law, and Land Use & Zoning Law, and in Super Lawyers in Appellate Law, Land Use/Zoning, and Government/Cities/Municipalities.

He is also a frequent speaker on land use and eminent domain issues in Hawaii and nationwide.

 

Michael Giaimo has practiced land use, environmental, and real estate law for 20 years, focusing on representing developers, businesses, institutions, government agencies, and other property owners in permitting, regulatory compliance, transactions, and related litigation and administrative proceedings. He also consults with clients on land use policy matters throughout the country.  Mr. Giaimo has appeared in front of permitting boards in well over 100 Massachusetts communities. His many years of service on numerous local boards, including as past chair of his local planning board and the zoning board of appeals and currently as a select man, give Mr. Giaimo an appreciation of the view from the other side of the table and have assisted him in successfully permitting many controversial projects. Mr. Giaimo has made frequent local and national speaking appearances before professional, business, civic, and student groups on zoning; constitutional issues, including takings, religious land use, and equal protection law; and other land use and environmental law subjects. He is a contributing author of the Massachusetts Zoning Manual, and has numerous other publications to his name. The Massachusetts Superior Court has qualified him as an expert witness on land use permitting. Mr. Giaimo has been named to the Massachusetts Super Lawyers  ® list in the area of Land Use since 2004 (Super Lawyers is a registered trademark of Key Professional Media, Inc.). He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the area of Land Use and Zoning Law since 2013 (Copyright 2014 by Woodward/White, Inc., Aiken, SC).

 

Daniel R. Mandelker is a leading scholar and teacher in land use law, environmental law, and state and local government law. He was the principal consultant and contributor to the American Planning Association’s model planning and zoning legislation project. He was also the principal consultant to a joint American Bar Association committee that prepared a model law for land use procedures that was adopted by the ABA House of Delegates.  He recently published a book on designed planned communities and a handbook on free speech law for on premise signs.  Additionally, he received the ABA’s State and Local Government Section Daniel J. Curtin Lifetime Achievement Award.