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Mr. Coakley is Chairman of the Executive Committee of the firm, a position he was appointed to in 2006. Connell Foley is a 120-lawyer, full-service law firm headquartered in Roseland, New Jersey.
As a senior member of Connell Foley’s Real Estate Law and Land Use Department, he focuses his practice on development and redevelopment projects throughout the state of New Jersey. During a career that has spanned thirty-five years, he has developed extensive experience with zoning, permitting, condemnation, wetlands and tidelands matters. Mr. Coakley is also a member of the firm’s Environmental Law Practice Group. His practice involves significant interaction with government.
He has represented the developers of Bridgewater Commons Mall since its inception. The Mall is a commercial development of over 2,000,000 square feet in Bridgewater Township in Somerset County, New Jersey.
Mr. Coakley has significant expertise in litigation based on Fifth Amendment takings claims. He was counsel to the successful plaintiff in the landmark inverse condemnation case of Loveladies Harbor v. United States, 28 F3d 11721 (Fed. Cir. 1994).
He is particularly skilled in the use of litigation to challenge adverse rulings in development projects from regulators, including municipal bodies and state agencies. Examples of his successes in this area include the $1.6 million dollar settlement in Estate of Desiderio v. State of New Jersey. Mr. Coakley brought suit on his client’s behalf after the State of New Jersey barred residential development of the client’s property, which included wetlands in Ocean County.
Additionally, in 2006 Mr. Coakley successfully settled two class action lawsuits on behalf of out-of-state members of the trucking industry against the State of New Jersey. The settlements resulted in $8.25 million dollars being refunded by the State to trucking companies that had been forced to pay unconstitutional fees. As a result of his efforts, Connell Foley was successful in removing a long standing state tax against trucking companies; getting the state to refund back taxes to those involved; and having the state permanently enjoined from imposing flat, unapportioned fees on the trucking industry.
Mr. Coakley serves as a board member for Alliance for Action, a position to which he was elected in 2008. He is a former member of the New Jersey Supreme Court Committee for the Tax Court, and former member of the Board of Trustees of the Blue Shield Plan of New Jersey as well as former chairman of the Lawyers Advertising Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association. At Rutgers Law School, Mr. Coakley served as a Member of the Law Review. Upon graduation, he became the Law Secretary to the Honorable John W. Fritz, New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division (1972-1973).
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