About The Firm
Nathaniel Stevens, Esq.
NATHANIEL STEVENS, Esq. is a Partner of McGregor Legere & Stevens PC. Since being admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1996, he has handled a broad range of environmental and land use matters, from administrative law to litigation. He has helped a diversity of clients with environmental issues including permitting, permit appeals, development, contamination, transactions, conservation, real estate restrictions, water supply, water pollution, subdivision control, tidelands licensing, Boston and state zoning, coastal and inland wetlands, stormwater, air pollution, and energy facility siting.
Mr. Stevens’ work includes state court litigation over land use permits and land ownership disputes, liability for property damage, insurance claims for environmental damage, cost-recovery for contamination cleanups, and damage to municipal lands and public natural resources. His permit-related and administrative litigation includes bringing and defending challenges to conservation commission permits for wetlands work, interpreting and enforcing conservation restrictions, and reviewing decisions by the Department of Environmental Protection (“MassDEP”). He handles adjudicatory proceedings in MassDEP, the Division of Administrative Law Appeals (“DALA”), the Energy Facilities Siting Board, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”).
In addition to litigation, Mr. Stevens has utilized dispute resolution and other problem-solving skills to efficiently and effectively achieve his clients’ goals. This includes working with land owners, land conservation organizations, and municipalities on a variety of permitting, land use, and management issues.
Mr. Stevens has conducted training through the Citizen Planner Training Collaborative (“CPTC”) for Planning Boards and Zoning Boards of Appeals on the Zoning Act and Subdivision Control Law. He has led Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions (“MACC”) workshops and training units for conservation commissions on the Wetlands Protection Act, Home Rule, the Open Meeting Law, and the Public Records Law.
Mr. Stevens has written for legal and environmental publications on subjects including wetlands protection law at the local and state level, quorum requirements for local boards and commissions, MassDEP regulatory reforms, Home Rule and preemption, EPA programs, and state Brownfields Law. His articles on changes to the Wetlands Protection Act and to the Permit Extension Act have been published by the Real Estate Bar Association, MACC, and the American Council of Engineering Companies of Massachusetts (“ACEC-MA”).
Mr. Stevens is a member of the American, Massachusetts, and Boston Bar Associations. He served as Co-chair of the Public Policy Committee of the BBA's Real Estate Section.
Mr. Stevens is a member of the Arlington Conservation Commission on which he served as Chair for many years. He served on the Board of Directors of the Arlington Land Trust, Inc., which promotes, raises funds, acquires, and manages conservation land and conservation restrictions within the Town. He served on the Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of the Lake Sunapee Protective Association, a New Hampshire member-supported nonprofit education and research watershed protection organization. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of MACC.
Prior to law school, Mr. Stevens was awarded a John Knauss Sea Grant Fellowship to study national marine policy in Washington, D.C. During and after this national fellowship, he worked on wetlands policy issues in EPA’s Wetlands Division.
Mr. Stevens is a graduate of Vassar College and Suffolk University Law School (cum laude), with a Masters of Science in Natural Resource Policy and Planning from the University of Michigan’s School of Natural Resources. In law school, Mr. Stevens was awarded “Best Brief” in the first-year Moot Court Competition and served as a member and editor on the Suffolk Transnational Law Review where he published an article on hydropower.
View Attorney Steven's Case List >>
Massachusetts Announces Waste Site Clean Up as well as Drinking Water Standards for Six PFAS “Forever” Chemical Compounds
On December 13, 2019, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (“MassDEP”) announced final as well as proposed regulations to address Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances or “PFAS”, a family of man-made chemicals known as the “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment. Only a handful of other states are regulating PFAS.
Municipal Governments Cope with Climate Change Adaptation and Resiliency Using Local Regulations
Coastal as well as inland communities in Massachusetts increasingly are looking to their local wetland permitting laws and regulations as one place to help build climate change resilience.
Risky Business: Using Email to Communicate Among State and Local Government Board Members Outside of Meetings
Many people embrace the state’s Open Meeting Law goal to have deliberations and decisions of local government boards, committees, and commissions open to public view. At the same time, most people have fully incorporated e-mail into their lives as an efficient means of communications. When serving on a conservation commission, planning board, zoning board of appeal, board of health, or other local board, committee or commission, the prolific use of email and laudable public policy can collide.
Across the spectrum of environmental law we offer advice and representation
with practical, results-oriented lawyering.