Peter F. Durning

Managing Shareholder

Peter focuses his practice in the areas of environmental litigation, enforcement defense, land use and permitting, with a specific focus on water and wetlands related matters. His experience includes adjudicatory hearings before the MassDEP, zoning disputes, judicial review of administrative proceedings, and appellate work. He recently prevailed in an adjudicatory hearing on behalf of the developer of a 50-lot residential development located near wetlands and has participated in a range of alternative dispute resolution activities, including arbitrations, multi-party settlement negotiations, and mediations. Peter delivered the winning oral argument in Town of Concord v. Water Department of Littleton, 487 Mass. 56 (2021), which involved the statutory interpretation of the Water Management Act.

Peter handles a range of wetlands adjudicatory appeals, solid waste site assignment hearings, zoning cases, citizen suits regarding stormwater discharges, U.S. EPA enforcement actions, permitting, business and transactional consulting, as well as local, state and federal permit proceedings and appeals. His clients include public companies, high net worth individuals, investors in renewable energy facilities, small businesses and municipalities. He also performs environmental due diligence for real estate transactions, development contracts and corporate transactions.

Peter was the co-chair of the Energy and Environmental Law Section of the Boston Bar Association from 2016 – 2018. He also served as the co-chair of the Environmental Litigation Committee from 2012 to 2014. Peter is an active member of the Environmental Business Council.  He is the Chair of the EBC’s Water Resources Committee and is active in the Solid Waste Management Committee. Peter served on an EBC panel discussing Environmental Justice issues in October 2021, and co-chairs annual EBC  programs with the Massachusetts Solid Waste Section Chiefs and the MassDEP Water Resources Leadership.

After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Peter was a history teacher for seven years, including three years with Teach For America in Trenton, New Jersey, and four years at the Abington Friends School in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania.

Peter earned his J.D. from Boston College Law School in 2003 and is admitted to practice in Massachusetts. Prior to joining the firm, he was an associate at Goulston & Storrs, P.C., where he worked on several environmental remediation cost recover actions under M.G.L. c. 21E and advised clients on zoning and permitting issues.

Peter lives in Newburyport, MA with his wife and two daughters.