Outthink. Outmaneuver. Deliver.
Clear, effective advocacy in complex litigation and regulatory matters.
About Hurst Law Firm
Shift the odds in your favor
The practice is built around careful record development, strategic motion practice, and clear, persuasive writing for courts, agencies, and counterparties. Clients work directly with senior counsel at every stage of the matter, from early assessment through trial and appeal.
Clear guidance. Strong advocacy. Proven results.
William Allen ("Bill") Hurst is a trial and appellate attorney with nearly three decades of experience representing businesses, property owners, and individuals in complex disputes involving land use, environmental and energy regulation, civil rights, and commercial litigation. His practice focuses on matters where outcomes depend on disciplined record development, technical understanding, and persuasive advocacy before courts and administrative agencies.
Bill has tried cases in New York state and federal courts and has handled appeals in New York’s appellate courts and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. His litigation experience includes contract disputes; boundary, access, and easement conflicts; adverse possession; trespass and nuisance claims; environmental enforcement and permitting matters; and constitutional challenges arising from land-use and regulatory actions. He has also defended defamation, invasion-of-privacy, and related publication claims, bringing a careful, record-driven approach to cases involving reputational and institutional risk.
A substantial portion of Bill’s work involves administrative and regulatory proceedings. He regularly appears before the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Public Service on enforcement actions, permitting disputes, and major project-siting matters. He also has experience supporting energy-sector diligence and transactions involving generation assets and regulatory compliance.
Before forming Hurst Law Firm, Bill served as Of Counsel at a leading New York environmental and energy law firm and previously practiced as a commercial litigator at an international law firm, where his work included media defense and First Amendment-related litigation. He brings that large-matter discipline to a solo practice model that emphasizes senior-level attention, direct client access, and writing designed for decision-makers.
Bill maintains a longstanding commitment to public service. He has represented displaced persons before the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and has been recognized by the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York for pro bono civil-rights trial work. He is admitted to practice in New York and before multiple federal courts.
Representative Matters
- Served as counsel of record in precedent-setting litigation before the New York Court of Appeals establishing governing standards for fiduciary duties and disclosure obligations of buyer-side brokers in residential real-estate transactions, shaping industry practice and risk allocation in residential deals.
- Represented landowners in landmark land-use and environmental review litigation clarifying standing principles where project impacts are visible from affected property, expanding access to judicial review in zoning and SEQRA matters with direct implications for project timing and approvals.
- Currently represents property owners and lakefront communities in litigation challenging the scope and application of New York’s comprehensive freshwater wetlands statute and implementing regulations, matters with significant implications for property use, valuation, and long-term regulatory exposure.
- Represented property owners and businesses in challenges to municipal efforts to invoke eminent domain or other compulsory acquisition powers in circumstances exceeding lawful public use or necessity, preserving ownership and negotiated leverage.
- Successfully defended and advanced high-conflict municipal land-use decisions, including zoning approvals and regulatory determinations involving environmental review, community opposition, and multi-agency oversight, preserving entitlements and development pathways.
- Defended sensitive and high-profile claims, including defamation and invasion-of-privacy matters arising from journalism, public commentary, and civic controversies, where reputational and commercial interests were at stake.
- Regularly represents property owners and businesses in challenges to municipal actions, including demolition approvals, zoning amendments, moratoria, and land-use enforcement proceedings affecting ongoing operations and asset value.
- Handled environmental and administrative matters involving New York State Department of Environmental Conservation permitting, wetlands regulation, and enforcement actions, including challenges to statewide regulatory programs affecting development feasibility and compliance obligations.
- Represented clients in civil-rights litigation arising from land-use and regulatory actions, including claims under federal and state constitutional provisions involving due process, equal protection, takings, and retaliatory enforcement, where governmental action threatened operational continuity.
- Achieved resentencing to a term of years for a juvenile offender serving a life-without-parole sentence in Michigan, pursuant to the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Montgomery v. Alabama and its progeny, in a pro bono matter involving complex constitutional issues, retroactivity doctrine, and discretionary resentencing standards.
- Litigated boundary, access, easement, trespass, and nuisance disputes involving complex factual records, competing expert testimony, and overlapping regulatory and property-law issues affecting access, control, and use of real property.
- Provided energy-sector diligence and regulatory analysis in connection with generation assets, environmental permitting, and compliance with evolving regulatory obligations relevant to investment and operational decisions.