MCLE’s Real Estate and Environmental Law Curriculum:
Solving problems, doing deals
From Charters of Feoffment to remediation of brownfields—
Meeting the ever-changing challenges of Real Estate and Environmental Practice

The Real Estate and Environmental Law CAC brings together a group of seasoned practitioners with a number of highly specialized perspectives. Working our way through the MCLE curriculum gives us a great opportunity to make discoveries outside of our usual “comfort zones” as practitioners, and to find common ground in the ways we approach our practices.

Martin R. Healy, Esq., Cochair, Real Estate and Environmental Law Curriculum Advisory Committee

MCLE’s annual real estate conference covers the most recent legislative and case law developments,of course, but it also leads us to confront the dramatic economic, financial and legal trends that are changing the way we practice law. I’ve always come away from the conference with a broader and deeper understanding of the issues driving my practice.

Richard Keshian, Esq., Chair, Real Estate Law Conference 2007

MCLE’s Real Estate and Environmental Law Curriculum Advisory Committee

Martin R. Healy, Esq., Cochair Goodwin Procter, LLP
Gregor I. McGregor, Esq., Cochair McGregor & Associates, PC
Donald L. Anglehart, Esq. Seyfarth Shaw LLP
Bruce H. Bagdasarian, Esq. Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP
Robert D. Cox, Jr., Esq. Bowditch & Dewey LLP
Paula M. Devereaux, Esq. Rubin and Rudman LLP
Carl F. Dierker, Esq. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Catherine F. Downing, Esq. Downing & Flynn
Peter M. Friedenberg, Esq. Sherin and Lodgen LLP
Pamela D. Harvey, Esq. Department of Environmental Protection, Commonwealth of Massachusetts
Richard Keshian, Esq. Keshian & Reynolds, PC
Beth A. Mitchell, Esq. Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP
Kathleen M. Mitchell, Esq. Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation
Daniel J. Ossoff, Esq. Rackemann, Sawyer & Brewster, PC
Michael M. Robinson, Esq. Goulston & Storrs, PC
Peter Wittenborg, Esq. Real Estate Bar Association for Massachusetts

Each MCLE newsletter features an overview of MCLE’s offerings in a particular practice area. This issue focuses on Real Estate and Environmental Law

Real estate and environmental practitioners face a particularly diverse set of challenges—complex and extensive legal rules and procedures, with origins ranging from centuries-old English common law to the latest tax and environmental regulations; demands for an expansive skill set, in areas such as drafting, negotiation, project management, statutory interpretation and business analysis; and a rapidly developing economic and regulatory environment, in which the nature of any lawyer’s practice can change dramatically in the course of just a year.

MCLE has established a real estate and environmental curriculum sufficiently strong and diverse to meet these many challenges. It starts with a solid foundation in the basics—through focused BasicsPlus® introductions to residential and commercial real estate and environmental practice, along with nuts-and-bolts seminars on the essentials of residential conveyancing, such as closings, title issues and mortgages. Through a wide-ranging series of conferences, seminars and publications, MCLE goes beyond the basics to address the latest developments and most sophisticated issues in real estate and environmental practice.

Lightning in a bottle— Keeping the curriculum current
The members of MCLE’s curriculum advisory committee (CAC) combine recognized expertise in real estate and environmental practice with years of CLE experience as faculty members, editors and authors. Their guidance is augmented by the creative ideas, judgments and experience of hundreds of volunteer panelists and authors, as well as feedback from the thousands of lawyers who attend MCLE seminars and rely on its publications and electronic resources.

With the support of its volunteers, MCLE is constantly looking for opportunities to rework and update the curriculum to meet today’s challenges. In the last two years, for example, MCLE addressed the effects on real estate practice of the new residential real estate brokerage law (G.L. c. 112, § 87AAA 3/4) and bankruptcy reform (the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005). On an ongoing basis, MCLE continues to adjust its curriculum in accord with changes in governmental policy, case law and the economy.

Learning from (and with) the experts—
MCLE’s seminars and conferences
MCLE offered more than two dozen real estate and environmental law seminars in 2006, ranging from its introductory BasicsPlus® courses to the most sophisticated topics in taxation, land use and environmental science. These offerings are both broad and deep, addressing such diverse practice areas as condominium transactions, real estate litigation, landlord/tenant disputes, rare species protection, and the formation of real estate holding entities. Throughout the curriculum is an emphasis on concrete, practical guidance—knowing not just the latest court decisions but also the critical techniques for interviewing clients, negotiating purchase and sale terms and obtaining regulatory approval for development projects.

The depth of MCLE’s seminars is perhaps best illustrated by the recently developed Real Estate Finance Bootcamp. Recognizing that lawyers typically provide the best representation only when they understand the client’s perspective and goals and are able to “speak the client’s language,” this intensive two-day program explores the details of real estate finance—cash flows, returns, financing structures and tax analysis. Taught by W. Tod McGrath, an instructor at the MIT Center for Real Estate and president of advisoRE, LLC, this unique program utilizes lectures, case studies and breakout groups to arm participants with the understanding they need to best represent their clients.

MCLE offered more than two dozen real estate and environmental law seminars in 2006.

MCLE’s annual conferences provide an important opportunity for practitioners to explore the latest and most important practice area topics with leading experts and colleagues throughout the field. The Ninth Annual Real Estate Conference features an address by noted practitioner Ruth Dillingham on developments in the housing and mortgage markets as the recent boom in refinancing apparently draws to a close. Eight other sessions on cutting-edge developments— along with a number of opportunities for the state’s geographically dispersed real estate lawyers to compare notes on their practices—round out the conference experience.

A similarly rich set of offerings was included in the 2007 Environmental and Land Use Law Conference, with an address by state senator Pamela Resor on the Commonwealth’s legislative agenda and more than a dozen separate updates on the most important issues in environmental and land use practice. Topics ranged from brownfields redevelopment and Department of Environmental Protection enforcement policy to the environmental lessons from Hurricane Katrina and current issues in energy development projects. Speakers included state and federal officials in a unique position to comment on recent developments at their respective agencies.

Comprehensive resources—
MCLE’s books and online materials
MCLE has assembled an impressive real estate and environmental law library, with twenty titles and more than 15,000 pages of practical guidance and forms. The collection addresses the full range of residential and commercial real estate transactions as well as environmental and zoning matters. The three-volume Massachusetts Environmental Law, edited by Gregor I. McGregor, offers extensive analysis and practical insights to guide practitioners through the existing maze of federal, state and local regulation.

In addition to aggressively pursuing its ongoing program of supplementing and revising the titles in its collection, MCLE recently published Massachusetts Construction Law and Litigation—construction law “from the ground up”—a comprehensive guide to the wide range of issues involved in launching and operating construction projects and resolving the disputes that inevitably follow.

MCLE also offers a growing repository of on-line legal resources, featuring articles, forms and seminars, with 348 articles and 40 annotated forms currently available in real estate and environmental practice.

Meeting the latest challenges
Keeping abreast of important new developments while continuing to update and enhance its existing programs and resources are ongoing tasks at MCLE. As the challenges faced by real estate and environmental lawyers continue to evolve, MCLE will work to address these challenges throughout its curriculum.