Stephen Leonard

Fellow since 2011

retired

(617) 426-3932 (work)

(617) 697-4069 (mobile)

[email protected]

Natick, Massachusetts

Region 1 CT, ME, MA, NH, RI, and VT

Environmental Law Topic

Administrative Law Air Environmental Enforcement Environmental Impact Review Water

I began my career as a public defender. In 1975 I joined the Environemtal Protection Division of the Masachusetts Attorney General’s office. I remained for more than a decade, the last seven years as Chief. The Division did enforcement litigation on behalf of the Commonwealth’s environmental agencies, and it untertook on its own initiative a wide range of environmental impact cases, including ones involving offshore oil and gas drilling, nuclear plant licensing, and licensing of dams on New England rivers.

I entered private practice in 1986, first in large law firms (Mintz Levin and then Brown Rudnick) and then in my own firm (Cronin & Leonard). My environmental work in private practice involved transactional matters as well as litigation; I continued to represent Massachusetts transportation authorities in environmental litigation, and I represented the City of Boston in environmental litigation concerning Logan Airport expansion.

I also taught part-time at Boston area law schools, as an Adjunct Professor at Northeastern Law School (Civil Trial Practice, Environmental Law) and as an Instructor at Harvard Law School (Federal Litigation).

Degrees

BA University of California Berkeley
JD Harvard Law School

Admissions

California
Massachusetts

Court Admissions

California
Massachusetts
U.S. Supreme Court
U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
U.S. District Court D. Massacusetts
U.S. District Court D. District of Columbia

Professional Societies and Organizations

Chair Boston Bar Association Environmental Law Section 1999-2001

Other Environmental Career Experience

Fellow, American College of Environmental Lawyers
Board of Regents, American College of Environmental Lawyers
Listed since 1995 in The Best Lawyers in AmericaÂ® in the area of Environmental Law
Recognized by Chambers USA in Band 1 for Environmental Law
Recognized from 2007 in Super Lawyers of New England for Environmental Law
Recognized by Whoâ€™s Who Legal for Environmental Law

Illustrative Projects

Major Brownfields developments in several Maine locations; Defense of numerous federal and state hazardous waste administrative actions; Defense of simultaneous federal and state hazardous waste criminal complaints; Led adoption of Uniform Environmental Covenants Act in Maine; Toxic tort defense.

Citations of Major Published Cases

1970s Federal Power Commission (now the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) relicensing of dams on the Connecticut River, requiring fish ladders at all the major dams in Masachusetts, Vermont and New Hampshire, Federal Power Commission Reports, https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=fedpowcomrepts.
Successful litigation enjoining federal attemps to sell oil and gas drilling leases in the North Atlantic in the area of the Georges Bank fishery: Massachusetts v. Andrus, 594 F.2d 872 (1st Cir. 1979); Massachusetts v. Watt, 716 F.2d 946 (1st Cir. 1983); Massachusetts v. Clark (594 F. Supp. 1373, 1984).
Succesful representation of Masachusetts' park agency in appleal of lower court decision restricting its takings powers, Codex Corporation v. Metroplitan District Comission, 392 Mass. 245 (1984)