Olympia “Libby” Bowker

Speaker

Olympia “Libby” Bowker advises private and public sector clients on environmental, land use, zoning, permitting, and other regulatory matters. Libby’s experience includes: Environmental: counseling clients on hazardous waste remediation and environmental permitting matters. Libby recently represented a municipality in an on-going salt-water estuary restoration project, including through project design and modification, permitting, and negotiations with abutters. Land Use and Zoning: representing clients before planning boards, zoning boards, conservation commissions, historical commissions and other various administrative forums, as well as in arbitrations, mediations, Land Court, and Superior Court. In addition, Libby is often called on to advise those bodies themselves. Permitting: collaborating with architects, engineers, surveyors, and wetlands scientists to prepare and present applications before numerous entities for Special Permits, Variances, Orders of Conditions, Site Plan Review, and subsequent permit modifications. She has represented municipalities and private clients in challenges to permit decisions in Superior Court and Land Court, and before administrative entities such as the Building Code Appeals Board. Libby’s written work has been featured in a variety of legal and environmental publications, including the Journal of Environmental Law and Litigation, Municipal Law Quarterly, the Real Estate Bar Association (REBA) Newsletter, and the Boston Jar Journal. She has presented seminars and webinars on zoning and legal developments affecting municipal boards for the Citizen Planner Training Collaborative (CPTC), the Annual Environmental Conference of the Massachusetts Association of Conservation Commissions (MACC), and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education (MCLE). Prior to law school, Libby conducted oceanic temperature research aboard a research vessel based out of Woods Hole, Massachusetts, led a backcountry trail crew repairing remote sections of the Pacific Crest Trail, and taught outdoor science classes at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.