Counsel
E-mail: elane@k-plaw.com
Phone: 617.556.0007
Practice Areas: General Municipal, Land Use, Real Estate, Environmental
Attorney Elizabeth Lane has over 35 years of experience in municipal law, specializing in land use law across a broad spectrum, including zoning, subdivision control, wetlands and environmental protection. In addition, Attorney Lane is a highly experienced general municipal law practitioner, who has represented municipalities both large and small, with the resultant diversity of issues and problems such communities present. As a counselor, she has written numerous opinions on land use and general municipal topics, and as a litigator, has represented numerous municipal clients in litigation before state and federal courts and agencies, including appeals, dispute resolution and settlement negotiation, and has won clients appellate decisions establishing favorable precedent for municipalities throughout the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Attorney Lane’s experience also includes negotiation of complex land development agreements, land use planning assistance and agreements for lease, sale and acquisition of real estate, and the transfer and restriction of development rights. A particular area of concentration is drafting local zoning and general legislation and regulations to suit novel or complex situations, and obtaining special legislation to address special situations. Attorney Lane specializes in crafting amendments to modernize or streamline local bylaws and ordinance and tailor them to the particular needs of a community. Specialties include drafting and amending local law in the sensitive and demanding land use areas of sign regulation, earth removal and groundwater protection.
In the area of general municipal law, Attorney Lane specializes in municipal finance; open meeting and public records law; conflict of interest; town meeting and local regulatory enforcement.
- Massachusetts Bar Association
- Past Associate Member, Milton Conservation Commission
- Massachusetts Bar
- U.S. District Court (Mass.)
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
- U.S. Tax Court
Northeastern University School of Law
Juris Doctor, 1978
Boston State College
Master of Education with honors, 1969
Stonehill College
Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, 1967
Judge Stone Scholar
Attorney Lane is a frequent speaker at conferences and association meetings. Topics include:
- Citizen Planner Training Collaborative – numerous seminars annually, on topics including:
- “Zoning Exemptions,”
- “Regulation of Nonconformities,”
- “Roles and Responsibilities of Zoning & Planning Boards,”
- “Subdivision Control Law/ANR”
- Variances and the Variance Process”
- “Municipal Law Basics – Open Meeting, Public Record and Conflict of Interest”
- “How to Hold Public Hearings and Draft Defensible Decisions”
- “Considerations in Local Regulation of Signs – Aesthetics and Grandfathering”
- “How to Work with Your Town Counsel – Distinctions Between the Private and Public Practice of Law” Plymouth Kiwanis; Milton Rotary
- “Zoning 201 – Current Issues and Hot Topics”
- “Laying the Groundwork: Zoning Planning and Subdivision Basics”
- “Application of Home Rule to Municipal Land Use Controls,” Boston Bar Association
- “Understanding the Local Regulatory Process,” Build Boston
- “The Municipal Perspective: Problems that Arise when the Pace of Development Slows Down”
- “For Municipal Chief Executives: Managing the Local Planning Process” with Leonard Kopelman, Municipal Forum