Condo Media - November 2010 - 38

VENDOR SPOTLIGHT

Perkins & Anctil, P.C.
Concentrating in Condominium Law and Exceeding Client’s Expectations
by Pamela Schweppe hen Charles A. Perkins Jr. was serving as assistant town counsel for the town of Chelmsford, Mass., at the beginning of his career, he found that the aspects of municipal law that intrigued him most were similar to the laws for a new form of housing that was emerging: condominium associations. “Condominium law is like municipal law when it comes to problem solving,” he says. “There’s a lot of call for interpreting laws and statutes and learning the rules of order.” More than 22 years ago, he formalized his interest in condominium law by founding his own law firm that concentrated in that area, The Law Offices of Charles A. Perkins Jr. From its headquarters in Westford, Mass, the firm — now Perkins & Anctil P.C. — handles a variety of issues confronting condominium associations today, including abatements, parliamentary procedure, construction defects, municipal regulations and general real estate issues. Legal services provided include condominium conversions and developer representation, representation before town and municipal boards, landlord/tenant matters, general civil litigation and estate planning.

cooperatives throughout Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Both he and managing partner Robert W. Anctil are members of the bar in both states. Anctil’s expertise is in the real estate area. His department offers a full spectrum of services in this area to lenders, buyers, sellers and developers, from conveyancing to financing. Within this specialty, his team handles development, zoning, land use planning, acquisition, sales and financing. Rounding out this three-pronged approach to condominium law is the Condominium Collection Team headed by Gary M. Daddario, newly named a partner of the firm. Offering lien enforcement services to all of the firm’s community association clients, from initial demand through (if necessary) foreclosure, his team also is skilled at recovering clients’ funds as the law allows.

this area of the law, it’s more collegial, like we’re all on the same team,” Perkins says. As a case in point, the firm filed an amicus brief recently on behalf of Community Associations Institute (CAI) in a case that was being argued in front of the Supreme Judicial Court by another firm. And the members of Perkins & Anctil work as a team with each other. Regular meetings are held to brainstorm on specific cases. “We provide an honest assessment of every situation,” says Perkins. “We advise our clients frankly about what we think is the best approach for achieving the desired results. And we provide just as much or as little services as the situation warrants.”

The Benefits of Concentration
Over the years of concentrating in condominium law, Perkins has juggled myriad responsibilities, from representing developers and associations, drafting and reviewing documents, handling construction issues and appearing before boards to addressing what he describes as “where you live issues,” such as borrowing money and solving problems like dealing with rules enforcement. He also has been steeped in nuances of condominium law that association boards might not be aware of — such as the possibility of a communitybuilding “movie night” becoming a nightmare of copyright infringement. Daddario agrees that there’s a lot that clients don’t know that their firm can do, such as assigning rights to collect monthly fees, “to make sure the association gets paid

Teamwork — Even with Rival Attorneys
In everything they do, the attorneys at Perkins & Anctil maintain a team mentality, an especially appropriate attitude when dealing with multifamily housing. “Community living isn’t for everyone,” Perkins points out. “In the end, our business is about dealing with people. Everything is done in conjunction with managers or association boards. We see the team aspect as the only way to work together to get something done.” That philosophy pertains not only to those involved in managing the associations represented by the firm, but to other law firms, as well. “There’s such a small number of firms specializing in

One Specialty, Three Divisions
The firm addresses these issues through three separate divisions: the condominium practice group, the real estate group and collections. As senior partner, Perkins heads up the condominium side, which represents more than 600 condominium associations, homeowners associations and

Condo Media - November 2010

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