Daniel P. Dain

I also head the firm’s litigation practice. We have six full-time trial lawyers in our group, as well as a number of other lawyers for whom litigation is part of their practices. We work collaboratively as a team and meet regularly to go over all of our cases. As a group, we work on disputes for our clients in the commercial real estate industry. These disputes can arise in traditional land use (such as zoning and permitting) and real estate (purchase and sale agreements, commercial leases, adverse possession, easement, and boundary disputes) fields, in tort and negligence cases (such as premises liability or nuisance cases), or in business settings (other breach of contract cases, commission disputes, corporate governance and fiduciary duty issues). We spend as much time with our clients discussing dispute or risk avoidance, management (such as through insurance coverage), and resolution as we do actively litigating and going to trial. Our aim, again, is to help our clients achieve their goals; litigation is really just business by other means.

• I am a Boston historian and am the author of the book A History of Boston, Bronze Medal Winner for best new non-fiction—Northeast in 2023 at the Independent Publishers Book Awards. I have lectured on Boston history at places like the Boston Public Library, the Cambridge Public Library, the Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Boston Athenaeum.
• I am a Gavel Board Member of NAIOP of Massachusetts, a leader in real estate advocacy and policy development in the industry. I am also on the Board of Directors of A Better City, a business advocacy group on transportation, housing, and sustainability issues. I am on the Board of Directors of the Real Estate Bar Association of Massachusetts and serve as the co-chair of its Real Estate Litigation Section.
• The legal rating publication Super Lawyers has recognized me as one of the top five percent of all lawyers in New England since 2005, and one of the top 100 lawyers in Massachusetts and/or New England each year since 2013. I have also been recognized in the category of real estate law by the publication The Best Lawyers in America.
• I was elected a Massachusetts Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a recognition limited to less than 1% of the lawyers in each state.
• I was appointed by the Boston Bar Association to co-chair its Land Use and Development Committee for the 2015-2017 term. The Boston Bar Association also appointed me as its representative to the Land Court Working Group, a group looking to increase efficiencies in the administration of justice at the Massachusetts Land Court. I am a past co-chair of the Boston Bar Association’s Real Estate Conference.
• I am a regular lecturer on land use and litigation issues at institutions such as Boston College Law School, MIT’s Center for Real Estate, Northeastern’s School of Architecture, Babson College, the Boston Bar Association, the Real Estate Bar Association, and Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education. 
• My writings on land use and litigation issues have been published by Banker & Tradesman, the Real Estate Bar Association News, CLE International, Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education, New England Law Review, and James Publishing (as past editor of a book on deposition practice).
• I am also active on land use issues in my hometown of Needham, Massachusetts, chairing the town’s Golf Club Advisory Committee, and serving as treasurer of the Needham Land Trust.
• I try to be engaged in our community in other ways. I have done fundraising for the Lymphoma & Leukemia Society, the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, and Heading Home, Inc. I am also on the board of the Vilna Shul, Boston’s Center for Jewish Culture.
• I am a member of the Abstract Club, an invitation-only organization comprised of no more than 100 leading real estate practitioners in Massachusetts.
• Rated 2023 Top Lawyer by Boston Magazine
• 2025 edition of The Best Lawyers in America^®

Perhaps my greatest professional honor has been the trust put in me by the clients with whom I’ve worked, including such outstanding commercial real estate companies and other institutions as:

I am the co-founder of the Restaurant Investment Group, created to raise and manage a fund to provide equity to start-up buzz-worthy restaurants looking to open in the Boston area. We started RIG in response to concerns expressed by our landlord clients that new-economy tenants were demanding amenities in their buildings, particularly independent restaurants (no chains), but that such potential restaurant tenants lack credit and therefore are greater risks than national credit tenants (chains). Our landlords were open to the idea of taking on the risk of these local independent operators because it helps drive demand for the upper floors (people want to be in buildings with cool retail on the first floor). RIG helps manage that risk by vetting the operators, helping with the business plan, and providing access to capital. We have been featured in articles in Boston Magazine, the Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, National Eater, and elsewhere. We currently have six highly-regarded restaurants in the Boston area, including Mida South End, Mida Newton, Apizza at Hub Hall, Cusser’s at Hub Hall and Time out Market, and Mooncusser Fish House in Park Square.

As a result of my involvement in restaurant investment, I served on the board of the Restaurant Discovery Project, a non-profit that sought to identify and support young minority chefs who hope to open their own restaurants some day in underserved neighborhoods of Boston.

• I graduated from Michigan Law School (cum laude) in 1995, and from Vassar College (Phi Beta Kappa) in 1993.
• I am also a graduate of Newton North High School.
• I enjoy hiking, watching sports, and traveling with my family.