News Articles

LandLaw Lawyers Honor the Passing of Mentor Terry Tondro

6.14.12
The Connecticut Law Tribune and the Hartford Courant quoted Charles E. Janson and Dwight H. Merriam, both of the LandLaw Section, in stories recognizing the passing of Hartford land use lawyer Terry J. Tondro.

Mr. Tondro wrote the book Connecticut Land Use Regulation - A Legal Guide for Lawyers, Commissioners, Consultants, and Other Users of the Land, which land use planners, judges, lawyers and developers often cited. In the Hartford Courant story, “Passion for Urban Planning, Fine Cuisine,” published on May 20, 2012, Mr. Merriam described the book as “the virtual guide book of decision-making in that area.”

In the Connecticut Law Tribune story, “Man Who Wrote The Book On Land Use Law,” published May 28, 2012, Merriam said, “You could go to a meeting and see the lawyers for the developer with the book in hand, the commissioners had the book in hand, and the angry neighbors had the book in hand. And they were all quoting from it.

"Before Terry's book, land use had been Balkanized and siloed into divisions," Mr. Merriam said. "Terry's scholarship, his book and his practice pulled these siloed practices together and broke down the walls between them, in useful ways, so people began to look more holistically at the land use practice. No one had really done that before he did that in this state."

In the Connecticut Law Tribune story Mr. Janson said, "Terry was my law professor, and he basically got me into all of the interesting things I've done in my career. That's the short story."