• Representing developer designated by municipality for large mixed-use, transit-oriented development in the Boston area to include over 900 residential units, a 125-room hotel, and 187,000 square feet of retail, office, and cultural uses and structured parking for 2,000+ cars, all arranged around a public plaza and with enhanced access to the adjacent transit station.



• Represented commercial landlord in a 42,000-square foot lease to a major national clothing and accessories retailer in western Massachusetts. In related transactions, represented landowner in finalizing tax increment financing and negotiating a parking agreement for the property.



• Currently representing hotel owner/operator in obtaining necessary municipal approvals for a major interior renovation of a property located in Boston's recently adopted Groundwater Conservation Overlay District.



• Currently representing national self-storage company in obtaining necessary local approvals for location of moving vehicle rental at an existing facility in a Boston suburb.



• Represented a major real estate investment trust in land use permitting analysis in connection with the acquisition of an under-construction, 330-unit multifamily development in a southern suburb of Boston.

• "Omaha by Design" (4/27/2008) presented at the Annual Conference of the American Planning Association, held in Las Vegas, Nevada; panel member and presenter



• "LEED-ND Pilot Rating System Establishes New Building Guidelines" (2/11/2008), published in Banker & Tradesman



• "Helping Communities Make Their Regulations Work for Mixed Use" (Parts 1 & 2) coauthored with Brian Blaesser (12/2007 and 1/2008) published in Retail Law Strategist



• "Tweaking the System: Getting Projects Built and Codes Changed within the Existing Framework" (Summer 2008), coauthor of chapter in forthcoming book A Legal Guide to Urban and Sustainable Development, to be published by Wiley, Inc.



• "Site Acquisition: Negotiating and Drafting the Purchase and Sale of Leases" (11/16/2007) presented at Lorman Education Seminar on Real Estate Development in Massachusetts from Beginning to End in Dedham, Massachusetts


Additional Publications and Presentations

• Boston Bar Association
• Congress for the New Urbanism (national organization and New England Chapter board treasurer)
• Massachusetts Bar Association
• Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation, board president and corporate counsel
• Massachusetts Chapter of the American Planning Association
• Real Estate Bar Association of Massachusetts

• J.D., Boston College Law School
• M.R.P., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, regional planning
• B.A., cum laude, Amherst College, modern European history

Before attending law school, Mr. Lawlor worked for Comsis Corporation in Silver Spring, Maryland, as a consulting transportation planner for local and state governments.

Mr. Lawlor received a B.A., cum laude, in modern European history from Amherst College. He earned a master of regional planning from the Department of City & Regional Planning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he concentrated in land use and transportation. He earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School, where he served as a co-managing editor for the Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review.

Mr. Lawlor serves as president of the board of directors and as corporate counsel for the Southwest Boston Community Development Corporation, a community-based nonprofit serving the Boston neighborhoods of Hyde Park and Roslindale. Mr. Lawlor also works extensively with the firm's representation of Congress for the New Urbanism/New England Chapter as that organization's pro bono general counsel and he presently serves as treasurer of that organization.

Mr. Lawlor is admitted to practice in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.