In 1978 Barry Lawson Associates opened for business in Boston. Our work in the first years was devoted to public participation and community relations and to ensuring effective public involvement in a variety of controversial wastewater management projects in New England.

In 1984 we moved operations to Concord, Massachusetts, and during the ensuing ten years we expanded our programs into many natural resource areas – land use and coastal zone management, solid and hazardous waste, and transportation.  During the late 1980s we added public hearing moderation, dispute resolution and group facilitation to our list of services.  Some of this work was in the Northeast, but increasingly we served clients throughout the country, from Florida to Alaska and New York to California. We became experienced neutral moderators for a host of controversial programs and this skill has continued to be an important aspect of our services into the present. 

In the early 1990s our offices moved to Peacham, Vermont where we are currently located. The firm’s work has became focused on project management as well as group facilitation, conflict resolution (mediation), and public meeting moderation. We have developed a roster of talented facilitators, mediators and moderators throughout the country who collaborate with us when our projects require multiple professionals.  Working with these associates gives us the flexibility to respond to a range of requests with proven professionals whose valuable skills complement those of our firm - and we have attained a solid reputation for professional skills in meeting management. One recent example is the national set of more than four dozen public meetings on the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Yucca Mountain High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository.