Tom Mackie is an environmental business lawyer. For more than thirty-five years Tom has represented businesses and municipalities facing complex environmental issues. He handles a wide variety of environmental matters and business transactions, such as solid waste, recycling and renewable energy facility siting; hazardous waste cleanup; private and public environmental contracting; facility acquisition; environmental due diligence; host community agreements; cost recovery cases under CERCLA and M.G.L. c. 21E and litigation of permit appeals.
According to Chambers USA, Tom “has a broad environmental practice encompassing experience across a broad range of complex matters.” According to one client, “Tom is outstanding: He is very smart, well focused and understands the multiple interactions of the complicated Massachusetts regulatory environment.” Clients quoted in Best Lawyers, where he has been listed for ten years, call him “a pioneer in the field of environmental law,” “at the head of his class on environmental matters,” “an outstanding attorney with attention to detail and common sense,” and “knowledgeable, levelheaded and unflappable.”
Tom develops strategies that reconcile facility siting with community needs to pave the way for facility development and expansion. His renewable energy cases involve solar, landfill gas, biomass, anaerobic digestion, biofuels manufacture and waste to energy. In addition to state and local permitting, for these and other projects, he assists clients with renewable energy credits, contracting, financing and public procurement issues.
A seasoned litigator, Tom has successfully litigated many permit appeals and related matters. Most recently, he won a case in the Massachusetts Appeals Court that reversed the Superior Court revocation of our client’s solid waste site assignment. In another matter, he won a Land Court case that reversed a Zoning Board’s revocation of our client’s zoning approval for a 35MW biomass power plant. He also won the defense of a multi-party appeal of the air plan approval for the project.
For national clients, he has led the environmental due diligence in several major environmental industry corporate acquisitions and divestitures. Most recently, Tom and Gail spearheaded due diligence for a client’s acquisition of a tax equity interest in over $100M of solar projects in Massachusetts. Tom also assisted a major client in its evaluation of Superfund liabilities prior to its $1.25 billion acquisition of a national hazardous waste and oil re-refining business. In another transaction, he led the firm’s participation in environmental due diligence and permit transfers for more than 50 licensed hazardous waste facilities located in 31 states and Canada.
Recently, the MassDEP Commissioner appointed Tom to the Commonwealth’s Solid Waste Advisory Committee. He also currently serves as Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Environmental Business Council and on the Steering Committee of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Waste and Recycling Association. As part of his pro-bono work, Tom serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Keep Massachusetts Beautiful and as Clerk of Virginia Thurston Healing Garden, Inc. Tom regularly chairs and speaks at seminars on environmental issues for the Environmental Business Council of New England, Boston Bar Association, and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. He is the author of “Solid Waste Law and Regulation” in Massachusetts Environmental Law. Tom holds a BS in biology from Hobart College and a J.D., cum laude, from Suffolk University Law School. He is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and New York.
Contact Info:
Email: tmackie@mackieshea.com
Direct: (617) 266-6288