Nick works with businesses and individuals to seek efficient and effective solutions to the environmental challenges they face. He assists clients in a variety of areas, including with development permitting, wetlands and coastal management, solid waste management, endangered species, and administrative appeals. He has experience working constructively with state and federal resources agencies, and representing clients in matters before the Maine Board of Environmental Protection.
Prior to joining Pierce Atwood in 2004, Nick worked for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection where he was a member of the Office of Water Policy and also helped staff the Florida Energy 2020 Commission. Previously, he also worked in natural resource damage assessment and policy analysis practice areas at an environmental consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where his primary clients were the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice.
Recent Experience
- Represented a municipality in defense of two companion law suits challenging the town's approval of tax increment financing to help fund development of 54-room inn in the town's center. Brunswick Fairfield v. Town of Brunswick, Doc. No. AP-10-010 (Me. Super. Ct. March 18, 2011); Anastos v. Town of Brunswick, 2011 ME 41
- Represented the operator of a state-owned landfill in two separate appeals to the Maine Board of Environmental Protection challenging two different license modifications. The Board unanimously denied both appeals
- Represented Central Maine Power Company before multiple planning boards across the State and obtained municipal approvals for substations and transmission line upgrades as part of the $1.4 billion Maine Power Reliability Program
- Represent the developer and operator of a community wind project on Vinalhaven Island.
Honors & Distinctions
Nick is listed as a "Rising Star" in Environmental Law by
New England Super Lawyers (2011).
Professional Activities
Member, Maine State Bar Association
Member and former Chair, MSBA Natural Resources and Environmental Law Section
Publications
First Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds Maine Court's Lynx Decision Under the Endangered Species Act (2010) (co-author)
DEP Proposes to Amend the Solid Waste Management Rules Regulating Processing Facilities and Landfills (2010) (co-author)
Federal Government Considers Listing the Atlantic Sturgeon as Endangered, Sturgeon as Endangered, Solicits Comments (2010) (co-author)
EPA Issues Hydroelectric General Permit for Massachusetts and New Hampshire (2009) (co-author)
Bald Eagles: An Environmental Success Story and Associated Regulatory Changes (2009) (co-author)
Chapter 17: Drinking Water, in Law of Environmental Protection, Environmental Law Institute (2009) (co-author)
Coastal Structures: Dynamic Economic Modeling, in Global Warming and the American Economy: A Regional Analysis (R. Mendelsohn, ed., 2001) (co-author)