LUKE H. LEGERE, Esq. is a Partner with McGregor Legere & Stevens, PC. He helps clients with a broad range of environmental, land use, and real estate issues including coastal and inland wetlands and waterways, zoning, subdivision, development agreements, conservation restrictions, state and local enforcement actions, stormwater, solid waste, hazardous waste, air pollution, site remediation, regulatory takings, affordable housing, and energy facility siting.
Mr. Legere routinely represents clients in permitting matters before conservation commissions, planning boards, zoning boards of appeals, boards of health, and other local environmental and land use boards and officials. He frequently represents clients in administrative enforcement proceedings and adjudicatory hearings before state agencies such as the Department of Environmental Protection (“DEP”). He regularly handles litigation in state and federal courts at both the trial and appellate levels.
Mr. Legere often writes and speaks on topics such as the Wetlands Protection Act, Chapter 91, Watershed Protection Act, Article 97, water pollution control, non-zoning wetlands bylaws, zoning and land use, regulatory takings, and brownfields. He has had articles published in newsletters for the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions (“MACC”), Real Estate Bar Association (“REBA”), and Association of Massachusetts Wetlands Scientists (“AMWS”). He is the author of the Water Pollution Control chapter of the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education’s (“MCLE”) treatise on Environmental Law.
Mr. Legere teaches a course on Legal Research and Writing at New England Law | Boston. He leads workshops for the Citizen Planner Training Collaborative (“CPTC”) offering guidance to members of local boards on the State Zoning Act, Special Permits and Variances, and Writing Reasonable and Defensible Decisions. He regularly serves as a panelist for MCLE’s “Practicing with Professionalism” program.
Mr. Legere has served as co-chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Wetlands, Waterways, and Water Quality Committee. He served two terms on the Board of Directors for the Queechy Lake Club, a non-profit corporation dedicated to the preservation and protection of Queechy Lake in Canaan, NY.
Mr. Legere is a graduate of Colgate University and New England Law | Boston, cum laude.
Mr. Legere has enjoyed success in court and agency administrative proceedings, and is often able to achieve his clients’ desired result by finding creative solutions to negotiate settlement for seemingly intractable disputes.
Citizen groups may sue project proponents using the so-called Citizen Suit Statute, G.L. c. 214, §7A, to challenge decisions allowing projects that would allegedly cause damage to the environment in violation of the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act ("MEPA").
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently decided the question of when the clock begins running to file a court appeal for certiorari review under M.G.L. ch. 249, §4, specifically against a conservation commission that had issued an enforcement order.
Across the spectrum of environmental law we offer advice and representation
with practical, results-oriented lawyering.