My Bio

Promoting constitutional principles to defend laws that make our communities environmentally sound and socially just.

Community Rights Counsel (CRC) is a not-for-profit, public interest law firm based in Washington DC that was formed in 1997 to assist communities in protecting their health and welfare by regulating permissible land uses. CRC provides strategic assistance to state and local government attorneys in defending land use laws. CRC published the Takings Litigation Handbook, a 404-page manual to assist state and local attorneys who are defending against takings claims. CRC conducts litigation workshops, helps governments secure amicus support, and, in critical cases, offers free representation to state and local governments.

Community Rights Counsel is directed by a board consisting of: Eldon “Took” Crowell, a founding partner of Crowell & Moring, a Washington DC-based law firm employing more than 270 lawyers; Veronica Eady, a staff attorney at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest; Doug Kendall, CRC’s founder and Executive Director; Charles Lord, the founder and Executive Director of the Urban Ecology Institute at Boston College; and Henry Underhill, the Executive Director and General Counsel of the International Municipal Lawyers Association. CRC began as a project of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA)–a national association representing over 8,000 city and county managers from around the country–and was housed within ICMA’s offices until July 1998.