Former Boston Planning and Development Agency Director Brian Golden will lead a newly-created real estate permitting practice at a Boston law firm.
Golden has been named a partner at Keegan Werlin LLP, where he will head a newly-launched practice that includes permitting services and advising municipalities on land-use issues.
Golden was appointed as BPDA director by former Mayor Marty Walsh shortly after Walsh took office in 2014. During his tenure at the BPDA, the longest of a director in the agency’s 65-year history, the agency approved more than 90 million square feet of development projects.
The agency modernized its online document center and instituted a series of reforms recommended in an outside audit, including improved oversight and record-keeping of its 20 million-square-foot portfolio of agency-owned properties.
Golden has been an attorney since 1993 and represented the 18th Suffolk District in the state legislature from 1999 to 2006.
Another former BPDA official, Sean Nehill, is joining Keegan Werlin as senior counsel in the real estate development and permitting practice and the energy siting practice, the firm announced today. Nehill most recently was the BPDA’s associate general counsel, and advised the agency on the sale of the Winthrop Square garage to developer MP Boston for its Winthrop Center skyscraper.
