Pally leaves LIA after 21 years
Colleagues say his legacy is in LI reforms
By Daniel Wagner
September 14, 2006

Mitchell T. Pally, the Long Island Association's longtime vice president for legislative and economic affairs, surprised LIA board members yesterday by announcing his plan to leave the business group after 21 years. Later this month, Pally will join Weber Law Group Llp in Melville to help expand that firm's lobbying practice.

"There comes a time when you say, 'I want to try to do something else,' and if you don't decide to do it, you may be too old to do it another time," Pally said.

In his years at the LIA, Long Island's largest business group, Pally has garnered respect from colleagues and the business community for his on-the-job performance and for his impressive community involvement, including seats on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, local industrial and development agencies, and the Three Village school board.

"Mitch has been instrumental in reforms that have improved Long Islanders' lives through better transportation, lower taxes, improved education, preserved open space, focused economic development, and a variety of government reforms," LIA president Matthew T. Crosson said in a statement.

Pally, 54, is married and lives in Stony Brook.

His successor will be Suffolk environment and energy commissioner Michael Deering, who has a long history of environmental advocacy. Before assuming his current role in 2004, Deering directed the Oyster Bay environmental group Friends of the Bay, negotiating the public acquisition and cleanup of several properties. Like Pally, he also has been a director of the Pine Barrens Society.

Deering, 51, lives in Smithtown. Praising Deering's work on the landmark legislation to preserve the pine barrens, Pally said, "We've worked together on a number of issues over the years that have led me to believe that his temperament, his expertise and his character are just what the LIA needs at this moment."

Pally's connections to business leaders and politicians, including gubernatorial front-runner Eliot Spitzer, will be tremendous assets to the government relations practice at Weber Law Group, said managing partner Morton Weber.

Weber said his firm, which represents some of Long Island's largest real estate developers, will make use of Pally's relationships and "phenomenal knowledge of Long Island" in expanding its lobbying efforts.

"A lot of Long Island is based on relationships - relationships you've had for many years," and the development approval process here is particularly onerous, Weber said, citing the firm's 11-year effort to build a Taubman mall in Oyster Bay.

The material on this site is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of America and international conventions, and is the exclusive property of Weber Law Group LLP or any licensee. All rights reserved. © Weber Law Group LLP 2007. Site by Webline Designs.