Alana V. Rusin
Counsel
Phone
Alana focuses her practice on commercial litigation, particularly real estate, trust and estates, partnership, and professional liability disputes. She has built a reputation as a powerhouse litigator in real estate, representing developers, landlords, and landowners in a wide range of disputes. She has handled large-scale land use and zoning litigation, including disputes over special permits and variances, Chapter 40B permits, and PDA and PUDs. Alana also tactfully litigates landlord/tenant lease disputes, partition actions, broker fee cases, and other real estate-based contract disputes.
In addition to her real estate practice, Alana is deeply involved in the Women’s Bar Foundation Family Law Project for Domestic Abuse Survivors where she represents abuse victims on a pro bono basis. She has also served as a board member for On the Rise, a Cambridge-based women’s shelter that provides a community where vulnerable women, many of whom have experienced domestic violence, have the relationships, safety, and resources they need to move out of homelessness.
Prior to joining Casner & Edwards, Alana was a litigation associate at Goulston & Storrs. In addition to her legal practice, Alana is the owner of Little Lovage Club, a premier playspace and parenting resource in the Prudential Center.
Honors & Awards
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly, “Up & Coming Lawyer,” 2020
Massachusetts Super Lawyers, “Rising Star,” 2013-2014, 2016-2019
- Massachusetts
- District of Columbia
JD, cum laude, Boston College Law School
BA, cum laude, Tufts University
Experience
- Leads high-dollar civil litigation cases in a variety of areas, including real estate, trusts and estates disputes, partnership, and professional liability
- Advises landlords and developers of office, retail, and residential portfolios during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, including negotiating retail and office leases, and navigating compliance with ever-changing regulations
- Successfully defended a Washington, D.C.-based real estate developer's right to turn an outdated 20-acre housing complex into a $500 million, vibrant mixed-use community
- Successfully defended a challenge to a $750 million dollar, technically complex redevelopment of a mixed land-and-air rights parcel project in downtown Boston
- Prevailed in a one-week trial defending a permit to build a new big box store in Massachusetts state court, taking direct and cross-examination testimony of key witnesses, including traffic engineering experts
- Former Board Member, On The Rise
- Former Volunteer Attorney, Women’s Bar Foundation: Family Law Project for Domestic Abuse Survivors
- Former Justice Leader, Discovering Justice
- Former Instructor, MCLE: Pretrial Litigation
