Gail Magenau Hire
Counsel
A former engineer with both mechanical and environmental degrees, Gail focuses her environmental and land use practice on regulatory compliance, permitting and real estate issues with environmental or energy components.
Gail’s work includes development permitting, enforcement defense, regulatory compliance, analysis and negotiation of business contracts, and administrative appeals. She was with an environmental boutique firm for nearly twenty years and more recently she helped expand the environmental practice at a mid-sized Boston-based firm. She has negotiated multimillion-dollar commercial real estate transactions, represented clients at zoning and permitting hearings before local boards, and performed due diligence on properties slated for renewable energy development. Her permitting work often involves land use matters such as analyzing and drafting easements, activity and use limitations, and other institutional controls.
Gail helps clients understand complex problems involving environmental contamination or environmental risks. She works closely with engineers and environmental professionals to help business owners, landowners and homeowners realize their business or personal goals. She runs interference with regulators and municipal officials to ascertain procedures and obtain necessary documents. To resolve disputes over environmental or land use issues, Gail often negotiates agreements for access and conservation restrictions.
Her clients are diverse in their needs—some may be concerned about a neighbor’s oil spill, while others are facing government mandates for costly remediation. Gail’s focus remains on how to navigate issues from her client’s perspective while remaining prompt, calm, and courteous under pressure.
Prior to becoming an attorney, Gail served both public and private clients in a wide variety of environmental matters as an environmental engineer and consultant. She has conducted facility audits for manufacturing companies, trained U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) staff on toxic release inventory reporting, performed air dispersion modeling for air quality permits, and advocated for technical changes in environmental regulations.
Outside of work, Gail is active in her local community and recently advocated for the full deployment of a municipal fiber-optic network in the Town of Concord, Mass., resulting in a task force report proposing a path to universal accessibility. Gail also served as a member of a Planning Board subcommittee that drafted Concord’s Tree Preservation Bylaw. While living in Boston, she volunteered as a legal advisor to the Citywide Groundwater Emergency Task Force, whose work helped to establish zoning changes and governmental commitments toward solutions for the problem of groundwater insufficiency in Boston.
Services/Industries
Education
- Boston College Law School (J.D.)
- Johns Hopkins University (M.S.E.E.)
- Bucknell University (B.S.M.E. and B.A.)
Public Service
- Legal Advisor, Boston Citywide Groundwater Emergency Task Force
- Town of Concord, Massachusetts, Fiber Broadband Completion Task Force
- Town of Concord, Massachusetts, Planning Board Subcommittee for the Tree Preservation Bylaw
- Concord Museum Guild of Volunteers, Board Member (2018-2022)
Bar Admissions
- Massachusetts
Court and Other Admissions
- US District Court for the District of Massachusetts
Memberships
- Boston Bar Association, Former Co-Chair, Hazardous and Solid Waste Committee of the Environmental Law Section
Resources