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Richard Grosso is a Professor of Law at the Shepard Broad Law Center at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida., and the Executive Director and General Counsel of the Everglades Law Center, Inc., (ELC) a public interest law firm which represents citizens and environmental interests in environmental and land use matters concerning the Florida Everglades, Florida Keys and the south Florida ecosystem inn general. Mr. Grosso directs the Environmental and Land Use Law Clinic at the Shepard Broad Law Center, where he also teaches Florida Land Development Law Workshop. Professor Grosso is a widely recognized legal expert and policy advocate with 22 years of experience litigating and advocating on state-wide and south Florida environmental issues. His teaching and legal practice specializes in land use, growth management and environmental policy and permitting issues.
Mr. Grosso is a former Legal Director for 1000 Friends of Florida, and is also a former attorney for the Department of Community Affairs and Department of Environmental Regulation. Mr. Grosso has an extensive litigation and appellate practice in the area of growth management and land use law, including property rights law. He has represented many clients in administrative and judicial proceedings involving Florida's Growth Management Act and environmental permitting matters. He frequently appears before local governments and other bodies concerning land use issues.
Mr. Grosso has successfully litigated a number of important and precedent setting cases, including Pinecrest Lakes v. Shidel, where demolition of buildings erected in violation of a local comprehensive plan was ordered by the courts, 1000 Friends of Florida v. Monroe County, the precedent - setting case on the issue of carrying-capacity - based planning, Sierra Club, et al v. Miami-Dade County, which overturned the state approval for a commercial airport at the former Homestead Air Force Base, and Fla. Wildlife Fed. & Sierra Club v. US Army Corp of Engineers, which halted construction of the Scripps Research Institute on the fringe of the Everglades in western Palm Beach County and resulted in the relocation of the project to an urban infill area. He won a major victory for citizen enforcement of the Growth Management Act in Poulos v. Martin County, which guaranteed citizens the right to a de novo trial in plan consistency challenges, and co-authored an influential amicus curie brief in the ground-breaking case of Brevard County v. Snyder. In his prior service to the state of Florida, he successfully argued the inverse condemnation cases of McKay v. DER and Namon v. DER, which strengthened the state's ability to protect wetlands on private property; DCA v. Withlacoochie Regional Planning Council, which upheld the state's authority to require Regional Policy Plans to be consistent with the State Comprehensive Plan; and Homebuilders and Contractors v. Dept. of Community Affairs, which upheld the state's ability to discourage urban sprawl.
Mr. Grosso frequently writes and lectures on growth management and land use issues, including property rights law. His most recent article is Old McDonald Still Has a Farm: Agricultural Property Rights After the Veto of S.B. 1712, The Florida Bar Journal, March 2005, at 41.
Mr. Grosso has won major awards for his work on behalf of Florida's environment. In 1995 he was named Individual of the Year by the Key West environmental group Last Stand, in 1997 was presented with the Hal Scott Memorial Award by the Florida Audubon Society for legal advocacy on behalf of the environment, in 1999 was named the Florida Wildlife Federation's Conservationist of the Year, in 2000 was granted the Public Service Award by the Martin County Conservation Alliance and was named as the Environmentalist of the Year by CityLink Newspaper (Broward & Palm Beach Counties), in 2002 was named Conservationist of the Year by the Everglades Coalition and the Audubon Society of the Everglades, in 2005 received the Sierra Club’s Florida chapter’s William K. ‘Red’ Howell Legal Services Award, and was named the Most Effective Environmental Lawyer in south Florida by the Daily Business Review for 2005.
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