Nicholas P. Shapiro - Boston, MA

Overview

Awards and Honors

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Nicholas P. Shapiro included in a Super Lawyers® list

Education

• Legal Education

  • Suffolk University Law School, Boston, Massachusetts, 2008
    J.D.
    Honors: cum laude
    Honors: Dean's List
    Honors: Jurisprudence Award, Antitrusts, 2007

• Non Legal Education

  • Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 2002
    B.A.
    Honors: Dean's List
    Major: English & Philosophy

Current Employment Position(s)

• Shareholder

Past Positions

• Massachusetts Appeals Court, Law Clerk, 2009 - 2010
• Massachusetts Land Court, Law Clerk, 2008 - 2009

Classes and Seminars

• “Easements and Restrictions: Law and Essential Practice Pointers for Attorneys and Paralegals,” at Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, panelist (2/12/20, 2/10/21 & 2/10/22)
  
• "Real Estate Litigation: Real Estate & Environmental Professional Development Plan Unit 13," at Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, panelist on “Pre-Litigation Strategy,” “Introduction to the Land Court,” “Overview of G. L. c. 40A, § 17,” and “Common Easement Issues” (2/25/15)
  
• "Litigating Real Estate Disputes," at Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education program, panelist on “Litigating in the Land Court" and "Easement Disputes Post-M.P.M. Builders" (2/5/2013)

Representative Cases

• Successfully argued motion for summary judgment/for judgment on the pleadings, defending developer/client’s ANR endorsement for subdivision that violated condition/covenant granted in connection with underlying definitive plan approval, against abutter appeal in the Land Court.
• Successfully argued motion to dismiss and obtained dismissal of Chapter 40A, Section 17 appeal of special permits to convert an existing hotel into a mixed-use development, in Superior Court, owing to the plaintiff’s lack of standing.
• Successfully argued motion for summary judgment, clearing title to client’s property of putative easement rights over cart paths extending over clients property, and having the Court declare that client’s property was not subject to restrictive covenant applicable to adjacent subdivision.
• Successfully made closing arguments in trial through which access rights over paper way bisecting clients’ lawn were extinguished by abandonment, in the Land Court.
• Successfully argued motion for summary judgment and procuring dismissal of action to perfect mechanic’s lien against client’s property, in the District Court.
• Successfully argued opposition to motion for judicial endorsement of a memorandum of lis pendens in an abutter appeal of ANR endorsement, in the Land Court.
• Successfully defended against motion for real estate attachment, based on the Massachusetts homestead law and a resulting trust theory, in the Superior Court.
• Successfully negotiated a six-figure settlement of an abutter zoning appeal in Boston, in the Housing Court.
• Successfully argued the appeal in Commonwealth v. Landing Group, Inc., Mass. Appeals Court Docket No. 20-P-686, contending that the MA Wetlands Protection Act includes protection for repairs to and maintenance of preexisting structures in jurisdictional resource areas
• Successfully argued special motion to dismiss, pursuant to the so-called anti-SLAPP statute, G. L. c. 231, § 59H, against a slander of title counterclaim, in Iannuzzi v. Bondi-Pickles, 29 LCR 334 (July 15, 2021) (17 MISC 000564) (Vhay, J.)
• Successfully argued the appeal in Kubic v. Audette, 98 Mass. App. Ct. 289, 156 N.E.3d 204 (2020), and on clarification and post-trial briefing on remand before the Land Court, concerning the ownership, littoral boundaries of, and use rights over, a right of way connecting a public way to a great pond
• Successfully argued against an application to expand a preexisting, nonconforming structure and convert a single-family residence into two single-family residential units before local zoning board, on behalf of abutter client.

Published Works

Articles

• Taylor v. Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission: Old Habits Die Hard, ABA Real Estate Litigation and Condemnation Committee Journal, February 2, 2017
  
• ‘Taylor’ Showcases Need to Jettison Doctrine of Overloading, REBA news, the Newspaper of the Real Estate Bar Association, March, 2016
  
• Overloading Doctrine: The Last Bastion of Hypertechnical Formalism in Property Law, Article, ABA Real Estate Litigation and Condemnation Committee Journal, Winter, 2015
  
• Preparing for Your First Appellate Oral Argument: A Practical Primer, Article, ABA Real Estate Litigation and Condemnation Committee Journal, Fall, 2014
  
• MA Expands Decision Allowing Unilateral Reduction of Easement Area by Servient Estate, News and Development, ABA Real Estate Litigation and Condemnation Committee Journal, March 17, 2014
  
• More Flexible Easement Relocations Post-M.P.M. Builders Case, Article, ABA Real Estate Litigation and Condemnation Committee Journal, Winter, 2014
• Permanent Mission of India v. City of New York, Suffolk Transnat'l L. Rev., Summer, 2008
• Bayview Irrigation Dist. v. United Mexican States , Suffolk Transnat'l L. Rev, Winter, 2009

Bar Admissions

• Massachusetts, 2008
• U.S. District Court District of Massachusetts, 2014
• U.S. Court of Appeals 1st Circuit, 2023

Other Affiliations

• Real Estate Bar Association (MA), Land Use and Zoning Section, 2018 - Present (Co-Chair)
• Real Estate Bar Association (MA), 2011 - Present (Member)
• Real Estate Bar Association (MA), New Lawyers Section, 2015 - 2017 (Co-Chair)
• American Bar Association, 2014 - Present (Member)
• Real Estate Bar Association (MA), 2017 - Present (Board of Directors)
• American Bar Association, Real Estate Litigation & Condemnation Committee, 2022 - Present (Co-Chair)
• Abstract Club (MA), 2021 - Present (Member)
• Real Estate Bar Association (MA), 2020 - Present (Executive Committee)
• Real Estate Bar Association (MA), - 2023 (Clerk)