Mary E. Costigan

Calm under pressure, dependable, and a true advocate for her clients, Mary is an experienced municipal and environmental law counselor. Having worked in the public sector for years before joining Bernstein Shur, she has a firsthand understanding of the issues faced by municipal and state employees and boards—and how to help her clients confront them. Her most recent public sector position was associate corporation counsel to the City of Portland, where she advised the city staff and council on waterfront redevelopment and rezoning, among other projects, and was a resource for numerous committees—Energy and Environmental Sustainability and Community Development Committees, to name a few. Outside of the office, she teaches a Municipal Law Course at the University of Maine School of Law.

• The ins and outs of land use permitting, including subdivision and site plan review
• Zoning compliance, zoning amendments, and conditional rezoning
• Representation before local and state boards, such as planning boards, zoning boards, town councils, and the Maine Board of Environmental Protection
• General municipal law
• Administrative and judicial appeals
• Enforcement actions
• Wind power development
• Stormwater management
• Natural resource protection