Our Attorneys

Karis L. North has been practicing municipal and public sector law since 2006, and has over twenty years of experience counseling and resolving complex disputes for public clients. She is currently Town Counsel for the Towns of Natick, Mendon, and Sharon, City Solicitor in Newburyport, Special Counsel to the Cohasset Affordable Housing Trust.  Ms. North is also an experienced litigator on behalf of municipalities and municipal agencies, private parties, and non-profit organizations. She has experience in bench and jury trials in state and federal courts, and also in arbitrations and in administrative litigation before a variety of state agencies.

Her practice is focused on counseling and advocacy on behalf of municipal governments and agencies. She is a trusted counselor to her clients, and provides representation, counseling and advice in the areas of municipal governance, public records and open meeting law, regulatory and environmental counseling and enforcement, real estate transfers and transactions, affordable housing, land use, zoning, and planning, conflicts of interest, municipal finance, town meetings, and other municipal law areas. Ms. North also represents municipalities in collective bargaining, arbitrations and other labor proceedings, as well as in related litigation. Her goal in any matter is to find the right solution for her clients. She engages in creative problem solving to resolve conflicts and has achieved favorable outcomes for her clients in many settings that take into account the client’s needs as well as the facts and law underlying each matter.

Ms. North has a B.S. from Cornell University and received her J.D. cum laude from Vermont Law School, where she was the Managing Editor of the Vermont Law Review. She is admitted to practice in state and federal courts in Massachusetts, in the state of Maryland, and before the Supreme Court of the United States. Ms. North was a recent speaker at the MCLE Annual Municipal Law Conference and has spoken at many workshops and bootcamps put on by the Massachusetts Municipal Association (“MMA”) including speaking before the Select Board Association, and the Association of Town Finance Committees.  Active in the community, Ms. North was the President the Massachusetts Municipal Lawyer’s Association (“MMLA”) for the 2023-2024 year, and was a member of the Vermont Law School Board of Trustees for six years. She was also appointed to the inaugural Plymouth County Commission on the Status of Women and was elected to the position of Chairwoman by her sister Commissioners.