In recognizing Dwight Merriam for its first annual New England Trailblazers publication last year, Connecticut Law Tribune called the four-decade legal veteran “a major figure in American planning law.” Based in Weatogue, CT, Merriam represents land owners, developers, governments, and individuals in land use matters. The Connecticut Law Tribune says Merriam is “one of just a handful of nationally-recognized true planner-lawyers, fully credentialed in both professions.” It was Merriam’s desire to advocate for individual rights that drew him away from pursuing a career in planning to one in the law during his formative years, according to the Tribune.

Merriam is a Fellow and Past President of the American Institute of Certified Planners; a former Director of the American Planning Association; a former chair of APA’s Planning and Law Division; a former chair of the American Bar Association’s national Section of State and Local Government Law; the Connecticut member of Owners’ Counsel of America; a former Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors; a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation; a member of the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute National Advisory Board; a Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation; a Counselor of Real Estate; a member of the AARPI, and a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.

Merriam has taught land use law at the University of Memphis, the University of Bridgeport, Vermont Law School, the University of Connecticut School of Law, and the Quinnipiac University School of Law. Merriam has published more than 200 articles and 13 books. He is lead author of the leading casebook in his field, Planning and Control of Land Development, and co-editor of the leading treatise in the field, Rathkopf’s The Law of Zoning and Planning 4th.