Leonard Kopelman delivered the commencement address to the graduates of Harvard University's School of Continuing Education at Harvard's 358th Commencement held on June 4, 2009, in Cambridge, MA.
The firm congratulates its colleague Judith C. Cutler on being nominated by the Governor to be a judge on the Massachusetts Land Court. This nomination was unanimously ratified by the Governor’s Council. Several judges spoke on her behalf, and no one spoke against. For 19 years, Attorney Cutler has served our municipalities well.
Attorney Janet Hetherwick Pumphrey’s book review of “Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer’s Guide to Effective Writing and Editing” has been published in the Massachusetts Law Review (April 2009). Click here to view article.
Attorney Joyce Frank's article entitled "Indemnification Under the Massachusetts Tort Claim Act: Government As Insurer" has been published in the Massachusetts Law Review, Case Comment (April 2009). Click here to view article
The Department of Revenue has just announced that the maximum value of parcels that may be foreclosed using the land of low value procedure has been increased to $19,130 for calendar
year 2009.
On Friday, March 27, 2009, Charter Communications filed for bankruptcy, as expected. We have attached a most typically asked question and answer summary for your review. Please click here.
FMLA Regulations Revised
The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) has adopted extensive revisions to the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) regulations. These revised regulations go into effect January 16, 2009. For information on the revised regulations, you may visit the DOL website at http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/fmla/finalrule.htm. Kopelman and Paige, P.C., will be issuing an informational memorandum to municipal clients in the near future, further discussing the revised regulations.
In a landmark decision issued on December 10, 2008, the Norfolk Superior Court (Brady, J.), ruled that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) does not have the authority to impose conditions upon public water suppliers’ use of water under registration statements issued in accordance with the Water Management Act. Under the Water Management Act, public water suppliers who withdrew more than 100,000 gallons of water per day prior to passage of the Act were permitted to register those withdrawals as a means of grandfathering such uses. The Act provides that public water suppliers could continue such registered withdrawals as long as they applied for renewal every ten years. Registration statements came up for renewal in 2007, and as part of the process, DEP imposed conditions limiting the amount of water that could be used for residential purposes. Thirteen communities filed complaints in the Superior Court seeking to have the conditions stricken from the renewed registrations. The Superior Court consolidated the cases and ruled that the clear legislative intent of the Water Management Act was to grandfather existing withdrawals and no provision of the Act expressly permitted DEP to impose conditions on registered withdrawals. Accordingly, the Court issued a judgment requiring DEP to accept all registration renewal applications without condition. Although DEP is likely to appeal, at this juncture, public water suppliers who received registration renewals in 2007 are not required to adhere to those conditions. Kopelman and Paige, P.C. represented five of the 13 plaintiffs – Harwich, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Millis, North Reading, and Brockton.
Attorney Richard T. Holland's article entitled "'True' Breaches of Contract" has been published in the Massachusetts Law Review, Volume 91, No. 3 (October 2008). Click here to view article.