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Dwight H. Merriam
Dwight H. Merriam
Dwight H. Merriam, of Simsbury, Connecticut, has practiced law for 45 years. He represents land owners, developers, governments, and individuals in land use matters. Dwight is a Fellow and Past President and of the American Institute of Certified Planners, a former Director of the American Planning Association, a former chair of APA’s Planning and Law Division, a former chair of the American Bar Association’s national Section of State and Local Government Law; the Connecticut member of Owners’ Counsel of America, a former Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a member of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute National Advisory Board, a Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation, a Counselor of Real Estate, a member of the Association for Real Property and Infrastructure (formerly the Anglo-American Real Property Institute), and a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.
Dwight is the former Chair of the Cooper’s Fellows Program of the Connecticut Bar Foundation. He is President of Rivers Alliance of Connecticut and former Vice Chair of the board of the Connecticut Legal Rights Project, a legal aid organization serving clients with mental health disabilities.
He has taught land use law at the University of Memphis, the University of Bridgeport, Vermont Law School, the University of Connecticut School of Law, and the Quinnipiac University School of Law and has published over 200 articles and thirteen books including INCLUSIONARY ZONING MOVES DOWNTOWN, THE TAKINGS ISSUE, THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO ZONING, EMINENT DOMAIN USE AND ABUSE: KELO IN CONTEXT, and GROUP HOMES. He is a co-author of the leading casebook in his field, PLANNING AND CONTROL OF LAND DEVELOPMENT, the author of CONNECTICUT LAND USE LAW AND PRACTICE, and co-author of the leading treatise in the field, RATHKOPF’S THE LAW OF ZONING AND PLANNING AND 4TH.
Dwight has been named to the Connecticut Super Lawyers list in the area of Land Use Law 2006- 2017, named as one to the Top 10 Connecticut Super Lawyers in 2016 and 2017 (ranked number 2 in the state); was one of the Top 50 Connecticut Super Lawyers in Connecticut 2014; one of the Top 100 New England Super Lawyers in 2014 and 2016 (Super Lawyers is a registered trademark of Key Professional Media, Inc.),ranked in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business in Connecticut in the area of Real Estate, listed in The Best Lawyers in America® in the areas of Land Use & Zoning Law and Real Estate Law since 1991 and the areas of Litigation - Land Use & Zoning and Litigation - Real Estate for 2012, and in 2017 in four areas: Land Use and Zoning Law, Litigation - Land Use and Zoning, Litigation - Real Estate, and Real Estate Law. He was also listed in The Best Lawyers in America® as Hartford Lawyer of the Year in the area of Litigation - Land Use & Zoning for 2013 and in the area of Land Use & Zoning Law for 2012. In the 27th Edition of The Best Lawyers in America® Dwight is listed for his work in: Land Use and Zoning Law, Litigation - Land Use and Zoning, Litigation - Real Estate, and Real Estate Law. In 2019 the Connecticut Law Tribune (American Law Media) recognized him as a New England Trailblazer.
He received his B.A (cum laude) from the University of Massachusetts, his Masters of Regional Planning from the University of North Carolina, where he was invited back as the graduation speaker in 2011, and his J.D. from Yale. He is a featured speaker at many land use seminars, and presents monthly audio land use seminars for the International Municipal Lawyers Association.