April 4- International Committee/Comparative Law 

International Perspectives on Local Infrastructure Issues

Speakers: Michael Humphries (UK) and Dwight Merriam (US)  

Michael Humphries QC Year of call: 1982 (QC 2003) 

Practice areas: Planning, Environment, Compulsory Purchase and Compensation, Major Infrastructure Projects, Local Government, Rating, Public Law, European Law

Michael Humphries specialises in all aspects of property development law, but is particularly well known for his major infrastructure planning and compulsory purchase work, where he has acted in relation to some of the largest and most important projects in recent years. Michael has acted for and advised utilities, developers, landowners and objectors, as well as central and local government. Michael also has an extensive compulsory purchase inquiry and Lands Chamber practice and is the general editor of the "National Infrastructure Planning Handbook" (Bloomsbury Professional) and senior editor of "The Law of Compulsory Purchase" (Bloomsbury Professional); both leading practitioner manuals.

He is always one of the highest rated planning barristers in the annual Planning Magazine Law Survey and in 2013 appeared in Planning Magazine's 'Power 100' list as one of the most influential people in the UK planning system.

Michael is currently a Senior Visiting Fellow in the University of Cambridge Land Economy Department where he delivers an annual lecture on infrastructure planning.

In the Chambers & Partners Guide to the Bar (2016 and 2017), Michael was identified as one of the six "star individuals" at the London Planning Bar.

Dwight H. Merriam founded Robinson & Cole’s Land Use Group in 1978. He represents land owners, developers, governments and individuals in land use matters. Dwight is a Fellow and Past President and of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a former Director of the American Planning Association, a former chair of APA’s Planning and Law Division, and a former chair of the American Bar Association’s national Section of State and Local Government Law. He teaches land use law at the University of Connecticut School of Law and at the Quinnipiac University Law School and has published over 200 articles and nine books and including Inclusionary Zoning Moves Downtown, The Takings Issue, The Complete Guide to Zoning, and Eminent Domain Use and Abuse: Kelo in Context. He is the co-editor of Rathkopf’s The Law of Zoning and Planning and a co-author of the leading casebook in the field, Planning and Control of Land Development.