"I view my role as protecting the best interests of my clients from those who threaten them, and from Injustice, whether deliberate or unintended."

Mark Branse believes that for all its inefficiencies, the New England Town system offers many benefits that connect ordinary people with their local government and attend responsively to their needs and desires. As the former Town Planner for Glastonbury, he chose to transition to a legal career with the ambition of becoming the kind of town attorney for his municipal clients that he needed when he was a municipal official himself.

When he decided to pursue law, Mark also set out to represent private clients in a way that furthered their interests while respecting the unique character, the rich history, and the natural environment of Connecticut and its towns; to be someone who would make the New England Town system work in the best interests of all those who participate in it, whether as developers, volunteers, municipal employees, neighborhood groups, consultants, or business owners; and to be someone who would educate the participants in the municipal system so that they could perform their roles more effectively and keep a three-hundred-year-old system from the horse and buggy days operating into the 21st century and beyond.

Now with almost forty years of experience in municipal, land use, and environmental law, Mark has provided legal services to land use agencies in over two dozen municipalities, and has represented applicants and neighborhood associations in more than seventy towns in matters including:

• planning and zoning approvals,
• obtaining local and government permits,
• facilities siting,
• site plans,
• special exceptions and variances,
• zoning regulation and boundary amendments,
• zoning appeals, and
• zoning enforcement.

Mark applies his creativity, diligence, responsiveness, and willingness to think “outside of the box” to his current roles as Town Attorney of Sherman and Griswold; and Special Land Use or Planning Counsel for Andover, Barkhamsted, Canterbury, Eastford, East Haddam, Griswold, Haddam, Killingworth, Jewett City,  Marlborough, Middlefield, Montville, New Hartford, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook, Plainfield,  Scotland, Warren, Westbrook, and Willington. He also represents private developers across Connecticut in residential, commercial, and other development projects.

Mark’s investment in local municipal and land use matters is apparent by his breadth of industry memberships. He is a past Chairman and Secretary of the Planning & Zoning Section of the Connecticut Bar Association, and a current member of the Executive Committee. He has conducted seminars under the auspices of the Connecticut Bar Association, the Connecticut Chapter of the American Planning Association, the Connecticut Association of Conservation and Inland Wetlands Commissions, the Connecticut Association of Wetland Scientists, the Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust, the Eightmile River Wild & Scenic Coordinating Committee, the Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments, the Windham Council of Governments, the Council of Governments of Central Naugatuck Valley, the Connecticut Association of Zoning Enforcement Officers, and the Land Use Education Partnership, among others. He is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Land Use Academy.

Whether representing municipal developers or neighborhood groups, Mark strives to make the New England town form of government work for everyone’s benefit. That has been his life’s work and he leaves it to his clients to determine the extent to which he has and continues to achieve his goals.