Product Description

Recent updates:

• Update: August 2025

  Dear Subscriber:

  MCLE is pleased to enclose your copy of the 2025 edition of Drafting Employment Documents in Massachusetts . Inside, you will find new material addressing topics such as the following:

  • Form of offer letter for nonexempt and exempt employees. See chapter 4 for several alternative options for clauses that address arbitration. The chapter also offers a sample document for the assignment of inventions and employee confidential information.

  • Employees' reliance on artificial intelligence (AI). Chapter 17 includes discussion of several widely reported cases, such as those involving attorneys who relied on less experienced staff to write court briefs that included fictitious or incorrect citations to cases. The chapter includes practical suggestions for employers regarding implementation of policies on the use of AI. The chapter includes a sample AI use policy.

  • Title VII. In chapter 8, find a new discussion of requested religious exemptions from an employer's health and safety policies, such as vaccination requirements, and the propensity for an imposition of hardship where an employee's job functions require them to interact in person—particularly in clinical health–care settings. A 2024 case is cited.

  • Privacy in the workplace—lie detector tests. See chapter 11 for information about a recent clarification of G.L. c. 149, § 19B to create a private right of action to enforce the statute's notice provision. A 2024 case cites a denial of a motion to dismiss an action brought by a job applicant alleging that the employer failed to provide him with notice of his statutory rights before he unwittingly participated in a virtual interview that involved the use of AI to analyze the applicant's facial expressions, eye contact, voice intonation, and voice inflection.

  We at MCLE trust that you will find this new material useful in your law practice and valuable in keeping your law library current.

  Cordially,

  MCLE Press

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 expand

Introduction to Boston Zoning

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Jennifer Schultz, Esq., Nixon Peabody LLP

Chapter 2 expand

The Enabling Act: Chapter 665 of the Acts of 1956

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Jennifer Schultz, Esq., Nixon Peabody LLP

Exhibit 2A

- Boston Zoning Acts and Selected Special Acts Buy Form

Exhibit 2B

- Corresponding Sections of the Enabling Act, Boston Zoning Code, and Massachusetts Zoning Act Buy Form

Chapter 3 expand

Boston Zoning Officials and Their Functions

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Jennifer Schultz, Esq., Nixon Peabody LLP

Exhibit 3A

- Websites for Boston Zoning Buy Form

Chapter 4 expand

Boston Zoning Code Overview

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Jennifer Schultz, Esq., Nixon Peabody LLP

Exhibit 4A

- The Boston Zoning Code: Table of Contents Buy Form

Exhibit 4B

- Selected Issues Addressed in Multiple Zoning Provisions Buy Form

Chapter 5 expand

Zoning Districts and Subdistricts

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Chapter 6 expand

Special Purpose Overlay Districts

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Exhibit 6A

- Downtown Planning: The Downtown IPOD (Article 27D—Superseded and Expired) Buy Form

Exhibit 6B

- South Boston Waterfront Planning (Principles from the South Boston Waterfront IPOD, Article 27P) Buy Form

Chapter 7 expand

Special Dimensional and Use Regulations

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Chapter 8 expand

Development Review and Approval (Article 80): BPDA Review and Related Requirements

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Jennifer Schultz, Esq., Nixon Peabody LLP

Exhibit 8A

- Article 80 Development Review: Flowcharts Buy Form

Chapter 9 expand

Advisory Zoning Review

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Chapter 10 expand

Applicability of Zoning Requirements

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Chapter 11 expand

Administration and Enforcement

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Exhibit 11A

- Inspectional Services Department Documents: Sample Refusal Letters and Commissioner’s Bulletin No. 97-1 (Wireless Communications) Buy Form

Chapter 12 expand

Proceedings Before the Board of Appeal

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Chapter 13 expand

Judicial Review of Board of Appeal Decisions

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Jennifer Schultz, Esq., Nixon Peabody LLP

Chapter 14 expand

Amending the Boston Zoning Code

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Exhibit 14A

- Boston Zoning Commission: Sample Hearing Notices and Procedural Rule Buy Form

Chapter 15 expand

Judicial Review of Zoning Amendments

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Jennifer Schultz, Esq., Nixon Peabody LLP

Chapter 16 expand

History of Boston Zoning

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Jennifer Schultz, Esq., Nixon Peabody LLP

Exhibit 16A

- The 1924 Act (1924 Mass. Acts c. 488)—List of Amendments Buy Form

Chapter 17 expand

Common Nonzoning Permitting in Boston Development

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Jennifer Schultz, Esq., Nixon Peabody LLP

Exhibit 17A

- Parking Freeze Map Buy Form

Exhibit 17B

- East Boston Parking Freeze Buy Form

Exhibit 17C

- Downtown Parking Freeze Buy Form

Exhibit 17D

- City of Boston/South Boston Parking Freeze Buy Form

Appendix

List of Abbreviations and Major References

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Author(s)