In 2011, municipal attorney Stephen Langsdorf stepped into a huge mess in Chelsea, a small Kennebec County town teetering on the brink of lawlessness.

The FBI arrested longtime chairman of the board of selectman on extortion and other charges, one of the remaining selectmen resigned, the town clerk was fired and the town manager quit.

Langsdorf and Mike Pushard, the town’s lone remaining selectman, took on the monumental task of reestablishing town government. That involved calling a special election to fill out the Board of Selectmen, working to hire a new town manager and, eventually, rebuilding at least some level of trust of town government.

Langsdorf, of Hallowell, spent the last 27 years as Augusta’s city attorney and represented more than 50 Maine municipalities after he founded Preti Flaherty’s municipal law practice group. He plans to retire at the end of this year.

He has already stepped aside as municipal attorney in Augusta and Chelsea, where Pushard, who was elected just as the Swan situation came to light, is still a selectman.

“I was the only selectman, I was kind of coming into a hornets’ nest,” Pushard said when accusations against Carole Swan, former selectman, and her contractor husband, Marshall, divided the town, pitting longtime friends against each other as they picked sides. “Then Steve helped us. We had a special town meeting, probably 200 residents there, and five to six undercover cops were in the audience. Steve helped me run that meeting, and helped us put together a special town election, to get a second selectperson in. I was green, I didn’t know how to run anything like that. To be honest it wasn’t too far from what you see on television and in the movies. He was there to help our town get through that. He definitely put us in the right direction.”

Langsdorf said the Chelsea situation presented a unique legal problem — how does a town conduct business when it only has one selectman?

“It was questionable whether it was legal for one selectman to even call a meeting that way,” Langsdorf said. . “I was very much acting as the administrator for that couple of months, before we were able to get a new town manager hired, Scott Tilton.”

As Augusta’s city attorney, Langsdorf zealously and effectively represented the city’s interests for nearly three decades, Mayor Mark O’Brien, a lawyer himself, said.

“I think that’s a testament to his abilities and trust with managers and councilors he’s served with over those years,” O’Brien said. “He’s always had the best interests of Augusta as a whole in the forefront of his mind, as he should. He’s always been a zealous advocate. He’s very good at laying out the options and always realized it wasn’t his decision to make, but the (city) council’s to make, and whatever direction the council decided to go, he’d pursue it with all he had.”

Among the first things Langsdorf worked on as Augusta’s city attorney were agreements for the historic removal of the Edwards Dam in 1999, the first time a hydro-electric dam was ordered removed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission against the wishes of its owner, allowing the Kennebec River to flow freely through Augusta.

Some of the legal battles Langsdorf saw the city through have shaped parts of the Augusta known today, including the Hannaford store that was built at the site of the former Cony High School.

When the former high school building between Stone and Cony streets closed in 2006, a legal battle ensued when the city sought to sell the property behind the historic 1929 Cony flatiron building to a developer. Cony family heirs, who donated the site for use as a school, contended the deed did not allow the site to be resold.

The flatiron building is now leased to a firm that rents it out as senior housing. After multiple legal challenges, the city prevailed and sold the property, and Hannaford built a then state-of-the-art store there.

“There were probably five different lawsuits. It went to the state supreme court at least twice before we were through with it,” Langsdorf said. “We were then allowed to use the money from the sale of that property toward the construction of the new Cony. We ended up with a wonderful Hannaford that is very well used, and a beautiful high school. I think the city’s position was vindicated.”

In 2004, the ACLU of Maine sued in federal court to challenge Augusta’s mass gathering and parade ordinances, claiming the requirement to get and pay for permits violated the First Amendment’s free speech provisions. The case made it to the 1st Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, one step below the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices required some minor changes to the parade ordinance to make it constitutional.

Langsdorf, who is married and has two adult children, will turn 65 soon. He started representing Augusta when he was 38 and figures in his 27 years as Augusta’s attorney he’s probably attended 700 Augusta City Council meetings.

“I never thought it was boring; there were so many interesting issues, “Langsdorf said. “I was very fortunate to hold that position in the capital city of Maine.”

He’s worked for , Preti Flaherty his whole legal career. He started as a trial lawyer but wanted to transition to something else, and urged the firm to expand its role working with cities and towns. Initially, the firm’s only two municipal clients were Augusta and Rangeley. He saw an opportunity for growth because at the time few law firms in Maine specialized in that area of law.

Now, four attorneys at the firm represent about 40 Maine communities, making it the second-largest municipal law group practice in the state.

Those four attorneys include Cameron Ferrante, Augusta’s new city attorney, who Langsdorf said he hired four years ago and had already been transitioning into an increased role representing Augusta over the last couple of years.

City councilors voted unanimously earlier this month to appoint Ferrante as city attorney, or corporation counsel, and extend the city’s contract with Preti Flaherty for three more years.

Langsdorf supported the appointment, saying Ferrante is a quick study, intelligent and capable.

Ferrante said Langsdorf has “been a wonderful mentor and a fantastic attorney and provided sage advice to the city for 27 years.”

Despite serving many political bodies during his career, Langsdorf said he has no desire to enter politics in his retirement. He said he loves to play golf, and plans to enjoy his life and see what comes next.