Liam Murphy

Liam began his legal career with the Washington office of the Houston, Texas firm of Butler, Binion, Rice Cook and Knapp. He relocated to Vermont in 1983 and joined the Burlington office of Langrock, Sperry & Wool, where he became a partner and where he remained until becoming a founding member of MSK in March 2004.

Liam maintains a broad practice grounded in all types of real estate matters, encompassing real estate transactions and litigation, land use and environmental law as well as condemnation litigation.

Liam's transactional practice focuses on representing building owners and developers to establish and manage their operating entities, to acquire, finance, permit, manage, lease and/or sell (including through "1031 exchanges") a wide variety of commercial, residential, hotel, recreational, office and shopping center properties, and to establish condominiums and common interest communities. Representative transactions include the following:

• Counsel to the City of Winooski in connection with its ongoing downtown redevelopment project. The Winooski project is the largest urban redevelopment project in the state's history, involving the acquisition of 125 acres from multiple owners through sales and condemnation, obtaining master plan approval to construct over 300,000 sq. ft. of retail/commercial space, a 250-room hotel, a 43,000 sq. ft. municipal center, 800 units of housing, and 3,100 parking spaces in multiple parking garages, and then working with private developers to implement the City's vision for a redeveloped downtown.
• Counsel to Vermont National Golf Course in connection with the development of a championship golf course with 250 units of housing.
• Co-counsel to the developer of Maple Tree Place in Williston, a mixed use development with up to 450,000 sq. ft. of retail/commercial/office space, including a cinema, a grocery store, and 50 units of residential housing.
• Counsel in two superfund cases and a number of brownfield cases, where he has represented parties named as "potentially responsible parties" under CERCLA, the Federal Superfund law.
• Counsel to numerous landowners, land trusts and conservation organizations in the transfer of development rights and the creation of conservation easements, including projects with the Vermont Land Trust, the Lake Champlain Land Trust, the Champlain Valley Greenbelt Alliance and the Town of Charlotte Land Trust.
• Counsel to First New Hampshire Bank in the foreclosure, management, and resale of the Burke Mountain Ski Area, among other foreclosure/workout matters undertaken during the downturn in the real estate market in the early 1990s.

• Counsel to Burlington Broadcasters, Inc. d/b/a WIZN, successfully defending a radio station in a decade-long challenge to the location of its tower and antennae brought by a local citizens group.
• Counsel to numerous neighborhood groups and organizations in ensuring that neighborhood and community concerns are considered in proposed developments.
• Counsel to numerous landowners along U.S. Route 7 in the condemnation action undertaken by the State of Vermont in connection with widening that road from two lanes to four.
• Counsel to numerous landowners in condemnation actions by VELCO for its electric transmission lines and facilities in the New Haven to Burlington corridor.
• Co-counsel to the Central Vermont Railroad in connection with the series of cases interpreting the public's rights to "filled lands" along the Burlington waterfront under the "Public Trust Doctrine".

From 1997 to 2000, Liam served as the Chair of the Real Property Committee of the Vermont Bar Association, and in 2001 was awarded the "Service Award" by the Vermont Bar Association. Since 1988, Liam has regularly taught a course on "Title to Real Estate in Vermont" for lawyers and paralegals, and has published a companion publication. He is a frequent lecturer on land use and development law and related regulatory issues, appearing regularly at events sponsored by the Vermont Bar Association, the Vermont League of Cities and Towns, and the Municipal Clerks and Treasurers Association.

Born near Wexford, Ireland in 1954, Liam moved with his family to Wales in 1960 and then to Brattleboro, Vermont in 1968. He currently lives in Charlotte with his wife and two sons.