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55 Smith Avenue Mount Kisco, NY 10549 p: 914.666.5600 f: 914.666.6267 Attorney Advertising	In The News October 2009 — Megan K. Smith addressed the annual meeting of the Westchester/Mid-Hudson Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, reviewing the legal aspects of recent revisions to the Westchester County Health Department regulations which have had a significant impact on both residential and commercial properties in Westchester County. December 2009 — John S. Marwell addressed an expert panel assembled by New York State DEC Region 3 on the subject of the need for, and suggestions on how to achieve, SEQRA reform in the lower Hudson area. January 2010 — Carrie E. Hilpert, an adjunct professor at Pace Law School, began teaching Advanced Analytical Skills to third year law students for the spring semester. October 2009 — Diana Bunin Kolev has become Co-Chair of the New Lawyers Section of the Westchester County Bar Association. She has also been elected to serve as a Member of the Bar Association Nominating Committee. October 2009 — Megan K. Smith, an adjunct professor at Pace University School of Law teaching LLM students, is completing her third semester teaching Advanced Analytical Methods. October 2009 — Megan K. Smith has also completed her participation in the Land Use Leadership Alliance Training Program at the Land Use Law Center of Pace University School of Law. This is a program on the creation of workforce housing conducted by the Land Use Law Center and the Housing Action Council with support from the Westchester County Department of Planning, the Westchester Interfaith Housing Corporation and the Natural Resource Conservation Service with assistance from Congresswoman Anita Lowey. October 2009 — John S. Marwell has been listed in the New York State Super Lawyers for 2009-2010. October 2009 — John S. Marwell has been nominated to serve a fourth term as Vice President for the Ninth Judicial District of the New York State Bar Association. He also serves as a member of the Association’s Executive Committee and House of Delegates. October 2009 — P. Daniel Hollis serves as Chairman of the Westchester County Bar Foundation Fellowship Committee with the Westchester County Bar Association which created a fellowship in 2007 to allow a recent law school graduate to serve in a fellowship for a Westchester County not-for-profit organization with a public interest mission for a two-year period to help provide legal services to underserved portions of Westchester County. The concept of the fellowship was developed during the Westchester County Bar Foundation Presidency of Mr. Hollis. The Foundation has now partnered with the Pace University School of Law and has designated its second fellow who began her two-year fellowship with My Sister’s Place in White Plains, New York in September 2009. October 2009 — Mr. Hollis, Ms. Smith and Carrie E. Hilpert represented the firm at the First Annual Diversity Expo sponsored by the Westchester County Bar Association and Pace Law School on May 20, 2009. October 2009 — John S. Marwell spoke at the Annual Conference of the Property Rights Foundation of America on October 17, 2009. His topic was “Challenging Overzealous Zoning.” October 2009 — Robert Davis, a long-time trustee of the Food Bank for Westchester, has been re-elected Chairman of its Human Resources Committee. October 2009 — P. Daniel Hollis is Chairperson of the Westchester County Bar Association Committee on the Judiciary, which interviewed and rated candidates for judicial office for the Supreme Court, Ninth Judicial District, Westchester County Court, Westchester County Family Court and the City Courts. October 2009 — John S. Marwell was a panelist in a presentation held on October 29, 2009, by the Building and Realty Institute of Westchester and the Mid-Hudson Valley on the recent settlement of the litigation commenced against Westchester County by the Anti-Discrimination League of New York. He was also a guest speaker in a class at Pace University School of Law on SEQRA practice on November 11, 2009, and a panelist in a presentation on the recent Kent Manor litigation held on November 12, 2009 by the Building and Realty Institute. October 2009 — Carrie E. Hilpert, an adjunct professor at Pace Law School, will be teaching Advanced Analytical Skills to third year law students in the spring semester of 2010. May 27, 2009 — P. Daniel Hollis, as Chair of the Gagliardi Award Committee of the Westchester County Bar Foundation, presented the Joseph F. Gagliardi Award for Excellence on May 27, 2009 to the late Diane T. Murchison and Carolyn Carpenito in a ceremony in the Gagliardi Courtroom at the Richard J. Daronco Courthouse in White Plains, New York. The Award recognizes two outstanding nonjudicial employees of the Ninth Judicial District which encompasses Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam, and Dutchess County. March 3, 2009 — The firm obtained site plan approval and wetlands permits in a Northern Westchester town to permit re-development/re-use of a controversial industrially zoned property for self-storage/vehicular storage/classic car restoration businesses. March 2009 — Diana Bunin Kolev, an associate at the firm, was elected at the Annual Meeting of the Westchester County Bar Association to serve a three-year term on its Nominating Committee. March 1, 2009 — The firm secured a loan “workout”/forbearance agreement upon initiating default/mortgage foreclosure proceedings with respect to a significant Northern Westchester parcel with several $ million in arrears. February 10, 2009 — The firm secured a License Agreement with a Rockland County town to permit the re-opening of DEC investigation into encroachment of the Town’s landfill on private property. December 15, 2008 — The firm obtained site plan and wetlands permit approvals from a Central Westchester town on behalf of a religious, not-for-profit client for a 7500 square foot storage building. December 2008 — Megan K. Smith, an associate at the firm and Adjunct Professor at Pace University School of Law, completed her second semester teaching Advanced Analytical Skills to students seeking an LL.M. in Comparative Law. During the spring 2009 semester, Ms. Smith will serve as Advanced Analytical Skills Team Leader, assisting other adjunct professors that will be teaching the course to J.D. students. November 12, 2008 — The firm represented the owner of residentially-zoned property in a Central Westchester town, which had applied for a development permit to allow for the construction of a single-family residence. Neighbors challenged the Town’s notice of its intent to approve our client’s application on numerous substantive, procedural, and SEQRA grounds. The Town Board held a series of public hearings and written submissions were made. The Town Board issued its decision that denied the neighbors’ appeal and affirmed the preliminary approval on the basis that it was reasonable and rational and based upon a comprehensive record, and that the granting of the permit was exempt from SEQRA review. The development permit was issued shortly thereafter. November 12, 2008 — The firm obtained a Special Permit from a Northern Westchester zoning board of appeals for an institutional, not-for-profit client to allow for the temporary parking for that client on an off-site location owned by a different not for profit entity during a period of construction at our institutional client’s property. November 2008 — The firm closed title to a sale/donation of an approximately 80-acre tract in Westchester and Putnam Counties to the State of New York for park purposes after having secured subdivision approval from the Towns for a large portion of the site and having successfully defended that approval against a neighbor’s Article 78 proceeding through the Appellate Division. November 2008 — The firm closed title in private sale of a controversial 168-acre tract in Putnam County after having obtained subdivision approval for a 36-lot subdivision and having successfully defended that approval against a neighbor’s Article 78 proceeding. November 10, 2008 — The firm received two final zoning approvals on this same night in a Northern Westchester town with regard to the following: A client made an application for a Special Use Permit for a 2482-square foot accessory apartment in an existing residence and the construction of an approximately 7592- square-foot new residence with an in-ground swimming pool, all on the same parcel in an R-2 acre zoning district. There was significant opposition from nearby property owners. The accessory apartment will be in an existing residence that had originally been constructed in the 1780s as a 2-bedroom dwelling and was expanded over the years to a 5-bedroom residence. The client had originally intended to tear down the existing residence but the Town expressed an interest in the possibility that the building be preserved because of its possible historical significance. The client then submitted a plan showing the tear down of the newer construction of that existing residence leaving only a 2-bedroom portion, which portion proved to be of historical significance. A recommendation of approval was required, and received, from the Town’s Landmark Preservation Committee. The Town Board then conducted a Public Hearing on whether to designate the property with landmark status and that designation was received as well. The Town’s Planning Board then had to approve a Special Use Permit for the accessory apartment and a Special Permit for the building of the new residence, which exceeded the basic permitted amount of gross floor area and the permitted amount of gross land coverage. Both Special Permits were obtained from the Planning Board on November 10th. On that same evening, and in the same Town, the Firm obtained an approval for an amendment to an existing Site Plan to permit the continued presence of 9 pieces of air- handling equipment on an existing office building’s rooftop. The client had received an approval in 2002 for the construction of the office building, but with the air-handling equipment on the ground. The client built the building with 9 air-handling units on the roof. The Town issued a violation to the client and the client then had to return to the Planning Board for the consideration of an amendment to its Site Plan. There was vocal neighborhood opposition from a nearby condominium development. The Firm had the client employ a structural engineer, an acoustical engineer and an architect to assist in establishing a record that would demonstrate to the Planning Board that the requested Site Plan amendment should be allowed and that an additional unit should be added to the 9 existing roof top units, since the mitigation measures proposed to be implemented for the roof units would provide visual and acoustical buffering that would be better than any visual or acoustical mitigation if the units were forced to be returned to the ground at an expense to the client of several hundred thousand dollars. November 2008 — The firm represented one of its clients in a $20 million commercial refinance transaction, restructuring existing mortgage loans secured by twenty separate retail and office properties in New York City and Westchester County. November 2, 2008 — John S. Marwell has been elected as an Honorary Trustee of Teatown Lake Reservation, the largest non-governmental nature preserve and education center in Westchester County. Mr. Marwell previously served as a Member of the Board and as its Chairman. October 22, 2008 — The firm obtained the dismissal of a wetlands violation served by a Northern Westchester town on one of the firm’s agricultural use clients in which the firm raised both procedural and substantive challenges to the applicability of the town=s wetlands law for property located in an agricultural district. October 20, 2008 — John S. Marwell, senior partner of the firm spoke at the Property Rights Foundation of America’s 12th Annual Conference held in Albany, New York on October 18th, 2008. The topic of the conference was “Policing Private Property Rights: The Other Side of Zoning and Building Codes.” Mr. Marwell spoke on “No Growth Zoning Issues.” He had spoken at the 11th Annual Conference, “Forging Ahead for Private Property Rights,” discussing the New York State Navigable Waterways Controversy. Joining Mr. Marwell as speakers were Carol W. LaGrasse, P.E., President of the Property Rights Foundation of America; Lolita Buckner Inniss, J.D., L.L.M., Associate Professor of Law, Cleveland-Marshall School of Law in Cleveland, Ohio; Randal O’Toole, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and a Senior Economist at the Thoreau Institute; Jason Knox, Esq., Legislative Staffer, U.S. House of Representatives, Natural Resources Committee, and Robert J. Smith, Senior Fellow for Environmental Policy, National Center for Public Policy Research and Adjunct Senior Environmental Scholar, Competitive Enterprise Institute. October 20, 2008 — P. Daniel Hollis III, a senior partner at the firm, has been scheduled to speak at the New York State Bar Association’s Annual Meeting as a featured speaker as part of the Young Lawyers’ Section “Bridge the Gap” Required Legal Education Program. Mr. Hollis’ topic will be titled “Getting the Zoning: Litigating Land Ordinance Issues in State and Local Courts.” The program is scheduled to take place on Friday, January 30, 2009 at 1:30 p.m. at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square, 1555 Broadway, New York City, New York. October 20, 2008 — Megan K. Smith, an associate at the firm and Adjunct Professor of Law at Pace University School of Law, from which she graduated cum laude, resumed her teaching duties this semester, teaching L.L.M. students in the course entitled, Advanced Analytical Skills. Carrie E. Hilpert, an associate at the firm and Adjunct Professor of Law at Pace University School of Law, from which she graduated magna cum laude, will resume her teaching duties for the semester beginning January 2009 in teaching the course entitled, Advanced Land Use and Real Estate Seminar, to the land use law students. October 2008 — Our client Apropos Housing Opportunities and Management Enterprises, Inc. (“A-Home”) expects to complete construction and begin occupancy of its Scotts Corners affordable senior housing facility in Pound Ridge in the fall of 2008. The firm represented A-Home in obtaining the land-use approvals for this residential project, the first affordable housing in this Town, over several years, involving representation at more than thirty administrative board meetings. Approvals included a zoning code text amendment and wetlands, special permit, and site plan approvals. September 2, 2008 — On behalf of our client, a publicly-traded company which is a leading independent provider of business process outsourcing, financial technology services and analytics to the buy-side, we obtained a change of zoning from the Town Board for an 80,000-square-foot commercial office and data center building in Yorktown. July 2008 — Diana Bunin Kolev, an associate of the firm, was appointed to the Pace Law School Alumni Association Board of Directors. The Board of Directors consists of leaders in the alumni community who donate their time and expertise to promote the purposes of the Alumni Association as well as to provide guidance to the Law School, its current students and alumni.
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