Michael F. Perley | Hurwitz & Fine, P.C. | Law Firm

Mr. Perley has significant experience defending corporations, municipalities, employers, building owners, contractors and insurance carriers in a wide range of litigated matters. Mr. Perley has extensive experience in trucking litigation, having represented numerous truck lines in his career. He is lead member of the firm’s 24-Hour Emergency Response Team and is regularly engaged in complex catastrophic property damage and bodily injury litigation.

An accomplished trial attorney and client advocate, Mr. Perley served as a former Town Attorney with 22 years of governmental experience in zoning and land development. In addition to extensive experience in the full range of court proceedings in state and federal court, Mr. Perley’s practice also includes extensive counseling on matters including zoning, environmental review, land development, variances, legislative drafting, tax certiorari and eminent domain representing clients before town and village boards, planning boards, zoning boards of appeals and assessment boards of review.

Mr. Perley was the Town Attorney of Boston from 1986-2003. In 1991 he was a member of the Citizen’s Reapportionment Advisory Committee for the Erie County Legislature which redrew the legislative districts based on the 1990 census. Mr. Perley is a Trustee of Buffalo Seminary. Mr. Perley is President of the Orchard Park Symphony Orchestra, having formerly served as President of the Youth Orchestra Foundation of Buffalo.

Highly regarded by his peers and in the courts, in 2008 Mr. Perley was named one of the Top 10 lawyers in all of New York State (outside of New York City) by New York Super Lawyer’s Magazine which conducted a survey of all practicing attorneys in the state. He has also been named to the list of the Best Lawyers in America as well as the Business First list of Who’s Who in Law. In 2008, Mr. Perley was presented with the Pro Bono Service Award by Hon. William Skretny of the U.S. District Court of the Western District of New York for his dedicated service to the federal court. In 2010, Mr. Perley was appointed to the Eighth Judicial District Committee on Character and Fitness for admission of applicants to the New York State Bar Association.

Mr. Perley is a past director (1999-2001) of the Western New York Trial Lawyers Association, a member of the Defense Research Institute and President of the Buffalo Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. He is a member of the Municipal and School Law Committee and the Committee on Eminent Domain and Tax Certiorari of the Erie County Bar Association, and a member of the Municipal Law and the Torts, Insurance and Compensation Law Sections of the New York State Bar Association.

Mr. Perley received his Juris Doctor degree from the Duke University School of Law in 1976, and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Holy Cross in 1973. He graduated from Canisius High School in 1969. He previously practiced law with Walsh, Perley & Wilkins where he specialized in defense litigation including construction defect work and municipal law.