The Law Office of Douglas H. Zamelis is dedicated to assisting clients achieve their objectives by providing accurate, responsive, thorough and sensitive legal services. Doug Zamelis has over 21 years of experience counseling and representing corporate, governmental and individual clients in compliance and litigation matters involving open government and our shared environment.
In addition to his Juris Doctor from the Syracuse University College of Law (1989), Doug holds a B.S from Cornell University (1986)and a M.S. from the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (1989). Doug brings his extensive scientific knowledge and experience to bear on behalf of clients in federal matters involving the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, and the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and in New York matters involving the New York Environmental Conservation Law, Navigation Law, and Public Health Law. Doug represents clients before United States courts and agencies, including the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of the Interior, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, and the Occupational, Safety & Health Administration.
Doug also represents clients in environmental, land use, zoning, and municipal matters before New York state courts and agencies including the state Supreme Court, the Appellate Division, the Court of Appeals, the Office of the New York Attorney General, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Department of Health, the New York State Department of Labor, the Empire State Development Corporation, and the Adirondack Park Agency.
Doug has successfully litigated numerous Article 78 proceedings in New York courts, and has litigated with opponents including the State of New York, Pyramid Corporation, Wal-Mart, Iberdrola, Astra-Zeneca, and National Grid. His litigation experience also includes numerous cost recovery and defense actions in hazardous substance and oil spill matters.
Doug counseled the Metropolitan Development Association of Syracuse and Central New York in the negotiation and acquisition of Electronics Park from Lockheed Martin Corporation. Electronics Park is presently a showcase model for redevelopment of environmentally impacted properties.
Doug has extensive experience throughout New York State representing various applicants, reviewing agencies, and stakeholders in complex and controversial land use matters involving reviews pursuant to local zoning laws,the National Environmental Policy Act, and the State Environmental Quality Review Act. Representative projects include electrical generating and transmission facilities, hazardous waste facilities, large scale retail, manufacturing, and consolidated and unconsolidated mining operations. Doug represented the petitioners in Matter of Brander et al. v. Town Board of the Town of Warren, l18 Misc. 3d 477, 847 N.Y.S.2d 450, 2007 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 8258, 2007 NY Slip Op 27498 (Sup. Ct. Onondaga Cty 2007) (uncorrected opinion) wherein the New York State Supreme Court anulled the approvals for an 80 turbine wind power generating facility in Southern Herkimer County based on the reviewing towns' failure to properly review the project pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The court also granted the petitioners their attorneys' fees for successfully prosecuting their claims that the reviewing towns violated the state Open Meetings Law. The decision was not appealed.
Doug represented COR Development in its litigation with Pyramid Corporation concerning COR Development's Towne Center at Watertown, and authored COR Development's successful motion for leave to appeal to the New York Court of Appeals. Towne Center at Watertown is now a bustling and productive shopping destination.
Doug represented the Otsego Electric Cooperative, Inc. in the multi-jurisdictional local land use review and environmental permitting of an approximately 7 mile electrical transmission line and associated point of delivery and substation facilities in the Towns of Laurens and Oneonta in southern Otsego County. The transmission line currently serves the rural electric cooperative's customers in that area and improves service to the cooperative's other members.
Access to governmental records is integral to Doug's practice and he has extensive experience in matters involving the New York Freedom of Information Law and Open Meetings Law. In addition to recovering his clients' attorney's fees in Matter of Brander et al. for violations of the Open Meetings Law, Doug also represented Petitioner Patricia Ehrich who prevailed in her Article 78 proceeding against New Roots Charter School of Ithaca New York where the Madison County Supreme Court found that the school had violated the Freedom of Information Law and Open Meetings Law. In addition to awarding Ms. Ehrich her attorney's fees for prosecuting her FOIL claims, the court ordered that the school's Board of Directors, executive staff and records access officer attend FOIL and OML training by the New York State Department of State Committee on Open government staff. A successful "government in the sunshine" lawyer, Doug is the only practicing attorney in New York who has successfully recovered attorney's fees for clients for violations of both the Freedom of Information Law and Open Meetings Law, and to obtain an order requiring an agency to attend FOIL and OML training.
Prior to entering the private practice of law, Doug was employed by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in the Division of Water at the Region 7 Headquarters in Syracuse where he became familiar with the inner workings of the agency and its various Bureaus and Divisions. Doug was later an associate attorney at Jacobowitz & Gubits, Walden, New York, and then an associate and partner at Hancock & Estabrook, LLP. Syracuse, New York. Doug then joined Green & Siefter, PLLC Syracuse, New York and taught law as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the Syracuse University College of Law before starting the Law Office of Douglas H. Zamelis in 2007.
Doug is the former Chair of the Environmental Law Section of the Onondaga County Bar Association and currently serves as Co-Chair of the Petroleum Spills Committee of the Environmental Law Section of the New York State Bar Association.
An avid outdoorsman, cyclist, downhill ski racer, boater and amateur endurance athlete, Doug can be contacted at (315) 682-0724 and at dzamelis@windstream.net
