"My goal is to guide clients through an often daunting web of laws, regulations, and legal procedures and to help them achieve their goals in a creative, but cost-effective, manner."

Michael Zizka’s career has been that of a lawyer, a scientist, a town selectman, an author, and an educator. He brings all those skills to bear for his legal clients. In Mike’s view, the law should not be an obstacle, but a tool to solve complex problems and achieve worthwhile goals. He starts by making sure he understands his clients’ situations and objectives, and by helping them recognize not only what the law requires or prohibits, but also what the law can provide. One of Mike’s greatest pleasures is to devise effective legal solutions for clients by applying laws and regulations in creative ways.

Mike’s focus has been on issues related to government agencies (often municipalities) and on the use and development of land. He holds both Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Geology, and he mapped the glacial geology of the Columbia topographic quadrangle (an area of about fifty-five square miles) for the Connecticut DEP (now DEEP). He later spent five years as a hydrogeologist for DEP, where he helped dozens of municipalities and landowners analyze the potential consequences of different land uses.

As a practicing lawyer since 1982, Mike has advised or represented sixty different Connecticut municipalities, as well as a host of private landowners, both as counselor and litigator in state and federal courts. His cases have involved issues such as affordable housing, subdivision development, wetlands activities, nonconforming uses, zone changes, environmental pollution and inverse condemnation (“takings”). As a municipal counselor, he has drafted groundbreaking regulations and ordinances on a wide variety of topics. His written works include the widely used and well regarded, What’s Legally Required? A Guide to the Legal Rules for Making Local Land Use Decisions in the State of Connecticut (CT DEP, 8th Ed. 2023), as well as State and Local Land Use Liability (West Group), an annually updated national treatise on land use regulation.

Mike has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America© since 2011, and has been named “Lawyer of the Year” in the Best Lawyers® Hartford Region in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2021, 2023, and 2025 for Environmental Law, Land Use and Zoning Law, Litigation – Land Use and Zoning, and/or Municipal Law. He has been selected to Connecticut Super Lawyers® from 2006 to 2019. Mike is also a frequent speaker and lecturer on land use and environmental topics. He is well known in the area for his widespread community theater activities and for his on-air fundraising appearances for CPTV and WNPR.

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