Municipal Law
Contact: Dwight A. Johnson
The Municipal Law Practice Group of Murtha Cullina LLP includes more than a dozen attorneys with experience in virtually every type of legal service required by a municipality. The Group serves as town attorney to seven Connecticut municipalities, including the Towns of Avon, Cheshire, Griswold, Lisbon, Sterling and Willington, and the Borough of Stonington. The Group serves as bond counsel to three dozen towns and school districts, and as special counsel to more than two dozen municipalities or their boards and commissions in Connecticut and Massachusetts. Special counsel services include land use, litigation, water and sewer, environmental, planning and zoning, and labor and employment law. Among the clients that the Group currently serves as special counsel are the City of Hartford, the Norwich Department of Public Utilities, and the towns of Pomfret, Bridgewater, Colchester and Kent. In addition, we are general counsel to the Connecticut Association of Water Pollution Control Authorities.
Backing up the Municipal Law Practice Group are more than 125 additional lawyers whose practice areas include litigation, employment law, real estate, communications and utilities, tax, and pension matters - each of which becomes relevant to our municipal clients from time to time. In addition, the firm's Government Affairs Group provides administrative and legislative lobbying services.
Municipalities generate an unusually broad range of the legal issues. These can range from fundamental issues such as the extent to which a municipality can control growth and development, to an inquiry of whether a chicken with the run of a house can qualify as "household pet" under a zoning regulation. The challenge of dealing with such a variety and range of issues makes municipal practice particularly interesting to the Group's lawyers and, we believe, leads to better service to our clients.
The Municipal Law Practice Group prides itself on delivering timely and responsive service to our clients. We are readily accessible, in person, by telephone and e-mail; and if one of us is temporarily unable to handle a time-sensitive matter, other members of the Group are always available to help. Accessibility is coupled with a range of experience that enables us to meet virtually any challenge that our clients may ask us to handle.
The Group's lawyers stay current with changes in the law, and frequently provide updates to municipal officials and to other lawyers. Recent presentations by the Group's lawyers have included a seminar on land use procedures and zoning and wetlands issues, an update on budgeting issues at the 2007 convention of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities, participation in a training course for zoning enforcement officials, and a seminar to newly elected officials on the Freedom of Information Act. The firm provides annual updates in labor and employment law and semi-annual training sessions on sexual harassment. These presentations are open to all clients. We also provide presentations, when requested, to selected groups of employees and officials of our municipal clients.
