Advocacy Matters, LLC

Professional services:

Advocacy Matters, LLC works with private landowners, regional, local, and national land conservancies, as well as governmental agencies, social, educational, and environmental organizations to actively preserve those special places where life-long memories are created and legacies are forged. Conservation is a value-added resource in any community. Open space, trails, natural resources, and working ranch & agricultural lands are vital to our personal stories, and to our community’s health and well-being.

Conservation of our natural resources, advocating for clients’ rights, lobbying for smart legislation, capacity building for non-profits, and mediating to resolve disputes and retain core relationships is truly a vocation for Gwen. Concentrating her practice on important quality of life issues and assisting clients in creating a legacy for future generations is both her passion and her purpose.

Gwen knows first-hand that the land and the people who inhabit our ever-growing sub-rural communities need an experienced representative to advocate for their interests at every level of the process.

Practice area highlights:

• Donation of a Conservation Easement or Trail Easement
• Outright Donation of Land
• Hybrid-Donation and Sale of Conservation Easement/Trail Easement/ Sale of Land
• Reserved Life Estate
• Donating Land or Conservation Easement by Will
• Succession Planning (Wills, Trusts, Beneficiary designations, etc.)
• Historic Preservation
• Eminent Domain
• Real Estate
• Lobbying
• Mediation
• Non-Profit organization legal services (Entity Formation, Nonprofit board governance, Planning, Legal Guidance, etc.)

Credentials:

Admitted to practice law in: Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Texas

Education

Delaware Law School Doctor of Jurisprudence (2000)
University of California Santa Cruz, Graduate Degree Education (1989)
University of the California Santa Barbara, Bachelor of Arts English Literature and Creative Writing (1985)
School for International Training, studied abroad in Oxford England (1984)

Experience

Land Trust Alliance Professional Affiliate
Mainline Today, named Woman on the Move, 2017.
London Britain Zoning Hearing Board, 2012-2018.
Founding Executive Director and In-House Counsel, The Land Conservancy for Southern Chester County, 2004-2018.
Delaware Nature Society, Conservation Committee Board Member, 2001-2010.
Alternative Dispute Resolution Revision Committee Member, 2004.
Lived, studied, traveled, and/or worked on six continents.