Press Release

Boston, MA, Aug. 17, 2023 – Burns & Levinson announced today that partner Peter Durning has been named a “Lawyer of the Year” in Water Law by Best Lawyers, a peer-review publication regarded as the most respected, reliable, and unbiased source of legal referrals. Best Lawyers awards “Lawyer of the Year” recognition to those who received the highest overall peer feedback. Only one lawyer is honored as the “Lawyer of the Year” for a specialty and location per edition.

Durning is highly regarded for his deep expertise in water and wetlands-related matters. He represents public companies, real estate developers, investors, small businesses, and municipalities in environmental litigation, enforcement defense, land use, and permitting. He handles a wide range of wetlands adjudicatory appeals, solid waste site assignment hearings, zoning disputes, citizen suits regarding stormwater discharges, U.S. EPA enforcement actions, permitting, business and transactional support, and local, state, and federal permit proceedings and appeals. Notably, he delivered the winning oral argument before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in the case of Town of Concord v. Water Department of Littleton, 487 Mass. 56 (2021), which involved the statutory interpretation of the Water Management Act.

Durning recently served as the Chair of the Environmental Business Council’s (EBC) Water Resources Committee and is active in the Solid Waste Management Committee. He regularly co-chairs and moderates EBC programs on Drinking Water and the Solid Waste Industry. He is involved with planning EBC programs on Environmental Justice and handling PFAS in Biosolids this Fall. He was also a featured speaker in a Boston Bar Association program on PFAS Litigation this Spring. He is ranked in Best Lawyers in America (Environmental Law and Water Law), Lawdragon Green 500: Leaders in Environmental Law (2023), Chambers USA (Environmental Law), and Massachusetts Super Lawyers (2015-2022). He received his J.D. from Boston College Law School and his B.A. from the University of Notre Dame.

About Best Lawyers

Best Lawyers is the oldest and most respected peer-review publication in the legal profession. A listing in Best Lawyers is widely regarded by clients and legal professionals as a significant honor conferred on a lawyer by their peers. For more than three decades, Best Lawyers lists have earned the respect of the profession, the media, and the public, as the most reliable, unbiased source of legal referrals anywhere. The methodology is designed to capture, as accurately as possible, the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area. Best Lawyers employs a sophisticated, conscientious, rational, and transparent survey process designed to elicit meaningful and substantive evaluations of the quality of legal services.