Firm History:

Firm History.

The Ayers Law Firm, PLLC was formed in February 2004 from the solo private practice of member Kenneth L. Ayers, Esq. which was established in 1983.

Kenneth L. Ayers, Esq. is a long time resident of upstate New York who received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Syracuse University in 1969 and his Master of Arts degree from Dartmouth College in 1973. After a ten year teaching career in public high schools in both Vermont and New York, Mr. Ayers returned to Albany Law School of Union University where he received his Juris Doctor degree in 1982.

In 1981, while still a law student, Mr. Ayers researched, wrote and presented a seminar on "Highway Law and the Land Surveyor" for the New York State Association of Professional Land Surveyors. Both the 1981 Highway Law paper and its 1988 Supplement are now on the recommended reading list for individuals interested in becoming licensed land surveyors in New York State. In 1989, Mr. Ayers also prepared and delivered a paper entitled "Vermont Highway Law" for the Vermont Society of Land Surveyors.

During law school Mr. Ayers interned at the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, a public benefit corporation. As an intern, Mr. Ayers researched and prepared memoranda regarding the composition of the board and powers of the authority as well as real property issues related to leasing gas rights and trespass actions involving the storage of spent nuclear fuel rods on State owned property.

In addition to maintaining a selective private practice, for almost seven years Mr. Ayers served as Assistant Counsel to the New York State Dormitory Authority, a public benefit corporation and at the time the eighth largest public construction agency in the United States.

As Assistant Counsel, Mr. Ayers was responsible for providing legal advice in a wide range of disciplines including real estate, land use, environmental law, construction law, Article 78 proceedings and complex commercial litigation. During his tenure as Assistant Counsel, Mr. Ayers was involved throughout New York State in numerous matters involving real estate titles, easements, franchises and licenses, zoning, land use, eminent domain proceedings, transfer of air and development rights, environmental impact statements, environmental cost recovery actions and historic preservation.

Mr. Ayers left public service in 1988 and opened private law offices located in the Hudson River Valley just south of Albany and in 1992 established offices in the Mohawk Valley at Fort Plain, New York.

Mr. Ayers has also published papers on New York Riparian Law (1994), Adjoining Landowner Boundary Law (1995) and New York Land Titles (1998). In 2008 Mr. Ayers wrote and published the “Surveyor’s Handbook on New York State Highway Law” and together with Ms. Ayers presented a seminar on that topic to the New York State Association of Professional Land Surveyors in Niagara Falls. Mr. Ayers’ treatises have been cited to as authority by New York courts and Mr. Ayers has been accepted as an expert witness in the fields of highway and riparian law in New York State.

In 2004 Mr. Ayers formed The Ayers Law Firm, PLLC with his daughter and attorney Laura E. Ayers. Ms. Ayers received her Bachelor of Science degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1997 and joined the Veterinary Vaccine Research Group at Virogenetics Corporation in Troy, New York developing recombinate DNA vaccines for Merial Corporation based in Lyon, France. In 2000 Ms. Ayers returned to Albany Law School of Union University where she received her Juris Doctor degree in 2003.

Mr. Ayers and The Ayers Law Firm, PLLC have prepared and presented seminars to the New York State Department of Transportation (1994, 1996, 1997) regarding the acquisition and abandonment of lands relating to State highways, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation on the topic of private access across state lands and the public’s right to use abandoned highways located within forever wild lands (2005), the New York State Association of Professional Land Surveyors on the topics of highway law, turnpike and plank road law, riparian law and canal law(1982-2008), The Empire State Forest Products Association (2004) on the topic of access to privately owned property over abandoned highways, and the Association of Towns (2009) regarding highway right of way management issues including determining the width of the Town’s right of way and effectively abandoning and discontinuing Town roads.

Since 2004 The Ayers Law Firm, PLLC has worked on pivotal cases such as Robinson v. Robinson which spurred the Legislature to revise the Real Property Actions and Proceeding Law with respect to Adverse Possession and Kogut v. The Town of Martinsburg, where The Ayers Law Firm successfully defended the Town in an Article 78 Proceeding commenced by a landowner seeking to compel the Town to maintain a seasonal limited use road, a minimum maintenance road and a private road. Other notable cases include the Town of Middletown vs. Steiglehner et. al where The Ayers Law Firm, PLLC successfully defended private landowners from a condemnation proceeding seeking to take historically significant lands for use as a public highway and Carbone et al v. The Town of Boonville Planning Board, et al., where The Ayers Law Firm, PLLC successfully challenged the Town’s approval of a subdivision along the Black River in an Article 78 Proceeding on the grounds that the Town had failed to comply with the State Environmental Quality Review Act, among other things. In Terwilliger v. VanSteenburg, The Ayers Law Firm, PLLC successfully overturned the trial court’s decision in the Third Department Appellate Division regarding a dispute over deeded easements. The Terwilliger case is now a leading case cited to with respect to easements and chains of title in New York.

The Ayers Law Firm, PLLC currently serves as counsel for the Town of Palatine and as litigation counsel for Montgomery County and Montgomery County Sanitary District # 1 with respect to a real property title and access dispute involving the County’s public sewer facilities. The firm has also been retained as special litigation counsel by the Town of Stillwater in Saratoga County with respect to obtaining and granting the fee ownership, easements and franchises necessary in connection with the development of the Luther Forest Technology Campus to accommodate the billion dollar nanotechnology manufacturing facility for Advanced Micro Devices. The Ayers Law Firm, PLLC has served as counsel to the Village of Palatine and the Town of Martinsburg, and has brought litigation, including Article 78 proceedings, against the Towns of New Baltimore, Middletown, Boonville, Forestport, Newburgh, Marbletown, Owego, Candor, Galway and the Village of Fleischmanns, among others, on the behalf of private landowners.