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McGregor to Present "Legacy of the Regulatory Takings Doctrine" at ABA Annual Meeting Featured

Written by Thursday, 13 July 2023 16:59
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View of Ferril Lake and the City Park Pavilion View of Ferril Lake and the City Park Pavilion

Firm founder and senior partner Gregor I. McGregor will present at this year's American Bar Association (ABA) annual meeting in Denver, August 3-5, a survey of 100 years of the Regulatory Taking Doctrine since the seminal court case Pennsylvania Coal v. Mahon in 1922.

He is part of a panel of leading experts on the subject. Mr. McGregor's PowerPoint presentation can be viewed on this website at Slide Shows.

The Takings Clause of the United States Constitution and court cases after Pennsylvania Coal are a check on governmental power which the Due Process and Contracts Clauses used to serve. The decision has transcended its original relevance (on compensation for the government taking of private property) to become in modern times a fundamental determinant of the individual's relation with the government and the limits on governmental power viz private property (real estate, land interests, and money). It is a constitutional limit enforceable in court by invalidation or money damages or both.

The ABA session will survey the evolution of regulatory takings law and assess its impact on federal, state and local government authority, including not only the limits of that power over private property, but how the law as created by Pennsylvania Coal balances the individual's private rights against the government's exercise of regulatory authority in the public interest (especially the federal Commerce Clause power and state police power (aka public health, safety, welfare and the environment). This ambitious session will predict where these trends are taking us and what constitutional, legislative, and executive initiatives should be considered.

Moderator: Dwight Merriam, Simsbury, CT
Speakers: Carole Nicole Brown, Professor, University of Richmond School of Law, Richmond, VA
Robert H. Thomas, Visiting Chair in Property Rights Law, William & Mary Law School, Williamsburg, VA
Gregor I. McGregor, Partner, McGregor Legere & Stevens PC, Boston, MA

 

Read 751 times Last modified on Thursday, 13 July 2023 17:20
Gregor I. McGregor, Esq.

GREGOR I. McGREGOR, Esq. is the founder of New England’s oldest environmental law firm McGregor & Associates, PC in Boston, formed in 1975 and now McGregor Legere & Stevens,PC (formerly McGregor & Legere PC). The firm handles all aspects of environmental law, land use, real estate, and related litigation. The firm is a founding member of the Environmental Law Network (ELN), an alliance of specialty law firms, in the United States and abroad, sharing their legal expertise and practical experience for the benefit of their clients. Mr. McGregor enjoys Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating for attorneys (AV).

In 45 years of environmental practice, Mr. McGregor's cases in court broke new ground in the law of Environmental Impact Statements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act (MEPA), wetland and floodplain protection under the Massachusetts Wetlands Protection Act, hazardous waste cleanup liability and cost-recovery under the Massachusetts Superfund, reduced taxes and tax exemptions for qualified land conservation transactions, constitutional protections for open space and parkland, Home Rule environmental ordinances and bylaws of cities and towns, law enforcement and contempt remedies, and the constitutional doctrine of Regulatory Takings.

Before 1975, Mr. McGregor was an Assistant Attorney General of Massachusetts and the first chief of the Attorney General’s Division of Environmental Protection. In that capacity he advised and represented the Commonwealth during the formative years of Massachusetts environmental statutes, agencies, regulations, enforcement and cases in court.

Mr. McGregor is editor of the two-volume treatise on Massachusetts Environmental Law, published by Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, Inc.(MCLE). He is co-chair of MCLE’s annual Environmental, Land Use, and Energy Law Conference and MCLE’s Real Estate and Environmental Law Curriculum Advisory Committee. He received from MCLE in 2013 its Scholar-Mentor Award recognizing his dedication to legal scholarship and leadership.

Mr. McGregor chairs the Environmental Committee of the Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts (REBA) and serves as a member of the REBA Board of Directors. He is an active member of the Massachusetts Municipal Lawyers Association (MMLA), which honored him for his career contributions to legal education and effective advocacy on the Home Rule Doctrine. At the National CLE Conference in Vail, CO, Mr. McGregor co-chairs an annual seminar on Environmental Law, Land Use, Energy & Litigation for attorneys from across the United States.

Mr. McGregor is a long time member of the board of directors of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions (MACC) having served as Board President twice. He has handled several cases for MACC as amicus and is a regular presenter at their annual meeting.

Mr. McGregor is a graduate of Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School.

View Attorney McGregor's Case List >>

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