I counsel clients navigating at the intersection of business and government.
For over 30 years, clients have relied on Doug’s strategic advice to help them manage government regulations and complete major development and infrastructure projects. Doug is past chair of the firm’s Administrative Law Department and past co-chair of the Real Estate and Development and Infrastructure & Construction practices.
As project counsel, Doug leads and supports multidisciplinary teams focused on expedited permitting and successful development of large scale, mixed use, public and private facilities, commercial centers and office developments, with special expertise and experience on waterfront and transit-oriented developments. He provides advice on project reviews under NEPA, MEPA, wetlands, air emissions, waterways, highway access, historic preservation and zoning-based approvals. He is an expert at managing the public process.
Doug’s experience includes complex site assembly and urban redevelopment, with an extensive and successful record of assisting private parties and public agencies and authorities reach creative solutions to complex development and regulatory compliance and funding issues. Doug has also counseled clients on the implementation of design/build and finance techniques for more effective project delivery and on successful strategies in government procurements. His counsel is frequently sought on a wide variety of issues involving public policy at all levels of government. In summary, Doug knows how to make things happen.
Doug is a trained mediator and has served on Suffolk County and Norfolk County Superior Court Mediation Panels. He has mediated a variety of real estate, environmental and construction disputes and represented clients on large scale projects in multi-party mediations. Most recently, Doug facilitated discussions surrounding public and private funding commitments for the Rose Kennedy Greenway Conservancy. Leading regular stakeholder meetings over a six-month period, agreement was reached resolving a long-stalled negotiation and the formation and adoption of a new Business Improvement District for the Greenway corridor in Boston.
Doug's experience is enhanced by his substantial senior-level public experience in economic development and large scale infrastructure projects. Before joining Foley Hoag LLP in 1991, he served at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Construction, first as Chief of Staff and later as Chief Legal Counsel for the Central Artery/Tunnel Project. He also served for six years as Legislative Assistant/Director of Economic Development in the office of U.S. Senator Paul E. Tsongas, and for two years as a legislative assistant to Massachusetts State Senator (former Congressman) John W. Oliver.