Legal Experience

Tom Pierce works primarily with landowners in four general practice areas: land conservation, land use and planning, real property and environmental law. He has also consulted with several of Hawaii’s nonprofits, including land trusts, on a variety of organizational and other legal matters.

Tom has negotiated and drafted conservation easements and conservation-related property conveyances on most of Hawaii’s islands, including drafting the first easement in Hawai`i under the Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program, also involving funding under the Hawaii Legacy Lands Conservation Program. He has also consulted with clients on sustainable agricultural projects. These have included complex inter-connected operations, including sustainable forestry projects, affordable housing, employee-owned businesses, and farm cooperatives with a master farm plan for small conservation developments.

Tom publishes Hawai`i Land Preservation Network, an online newsletter geared to providing information to Hawai`i’s land trusts volunteers and employees (see http://mauilandlaw.com/hawaii_land_preservation_network_news.shtml).

As an adjunct professor, Tom has taught conservation property law at the University of Hawai`i, William S. Richardson School of Law. He has also been invited to speak at and participate in numerous information meetings regarding the land trust model, as well as at strategic planning sessions for land trusts. Since 2003, Tom has attended most of the yearly Land Trust Alliance national conferences. LTA is dedicated to providing legal and other information to land trust members and professionals.

Tom is a former board member and the founding president of the Maui Coastal Land Trust, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation incorporated in 2001 with a mission to “acquire, preserve and protect coastal lands in Maui Nui for the integrity of the natural environment and the enjoyment of current and future generations.” MCLT now has several full time employees and owns or holds conservation easements on thousands of acres of coastal lands.

Tom is a former attorney with the Maui office of Paul, Johnson, Park & Niles, where he practiced in the areas of litigation and administrative advocacy with an emphasis on land use and environmental law. Prior to entering into private practice, he worked with the Department of the Corporation Counsel for the County of Maui, where he represented the County in environmental, land use, personal injury, and civil rights litigation in both the state and federal courts. He also defended and counseled the County in employment and labor matters.

While at the University of Hawaii, William S. Richardson School of Law, Tom received a Certificate in Environmental Law, was a member of the University of Hawai`i Law Review, was the director of the Hawai`i Environmental Law Society, received the CALI Excellence for the Future Award in Second Year Seminar: Environmental Law, and published A Constitutionally Valid Justification for the Enactment of No-Growth Ordinances: Integrating Concepts of Population Stabilization and Sustainability 19 U. Haw. L. Rev. 93 (1997).

PHONE: 808-573-2428FAX: 866-776-6645 EMAIL: tom@mauilandlaw.com
PO Box 798Makawao, Hawaii 96768

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