Susan Park President's Award for Excellence: Daniel P. Dain

Daniel P. Dain has devoted his professional career to the question of what makes cities successful. Through his law practice and research on urban policy and law, he has concluded that constant innovation is the lifeblood of vital cities, and to create the conditions necessary to foster innovation, cities must be committed to what Dan calls the three “Ds” – density, diversity, and [good urban] design – how to create those urban spaces that will attract lots of people from different backgrounds and experiences to exchange ideas that will lead to new insights and innovations. 

These principles of good urbanism have animated and unified Dan’s legal practice, professional endeavors, and non-profit commitments. They are manifested in Dan’s law practice at the commercial real estate development boutique law firm Dain, Torpy, Le Ray, Wiest & Garner, where he is the co-founder, chair, president, and head of the litigation group, and where he is widely acclaimed as having one of the leading real estate and land use litigation practices in Massachusetts.

These principles are also manifested in Dan’s other professional pursuits, including as author of the award-winning book A History of Boston (Peter E. Randall Publisher, 2023), and as the co-founder and manager of the Restaurant Investment Group, a small equity fund established to help identify and provide start-up capital to up-and-coming chefs in Boston. And they are manifested in his non-profit work, including notably serving as chair of the board of the arts company, White Snake Projects, as Vice President of the Jewish arts and cultural center the Vilna Shul, as treasurer of the Needham Land Trust, and as a board member of advocacy groups including A Better City and NAIOP Massachusetts.