Experience

Tom is a senior partner in Pierce Atwood’s Environmental and Land Use Practice Group. He has extensive experience in all areas of environmental and land use law, including adjudicatory proceedings, complex corporate transactions, and client counseling. During his career, Tom has been lead counsel in several high profile environmental matters and transactions. His accomplishments include:

• Lead environmental counsel on Central Maine Power's Maine Power Reliability Program, a $1.5 billion project to improve the reliability of Maine's electric power system. It's the largest transmission project ever proposed in Maine.
• Lead environmental counsel on a pipeline project to reverse the flow of crude oil in an 18" pipeline that traverses three New England states and a portion of Quebec.
• The successful licensing of two vast greenhouses (one 24-acres and one 18-acres), heated by a biomass boiler, to grow tomatoes.  These facilities are the largest of their kind in the Northeast. 
• Lead environmental counsel for the largest island community wind project in New England.
• The successful licensing of an additional seven million cubic yards of waste disposal capacity for the private operator of the only state-owned landfill in New England. Approval obtained after a contested state proceeding.
• The successful licensing of a state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication facility. The applicable state licenses were obtained in 21 days, the minimum time required by state law.
• The only private attorney over the past fifteen years to have successfully led the licensing of a new landfill in Maine, a feat he has accomplished twice.
• The successful licensing of a 1,000-ton-per-day transfer station and construction demolition debris processing facility, which will be the largest facility of its kind in northern New England. 
• The successful permitting of a 175-megawatt natural gas turbine-generator for one of Maine’s largest manufacturing facilities.
• The successful federal, state, and local licensing of a major pulp and paper mill expansion, which included a new paper machine, two new boilers, and a new pulp mill. 
• Serving as environmental counsel in many complex corporate transactions, such as public offerings, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, site divisions, and project financings. His work has involved such international companies as Bowater Incorporated, Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, Georgia-Pacific Corporation, National Semiconductor Corporation, and Sappi Fine Paper.

Tom has been involved in numerous judicial appeals of federal, state, and municipal agency decisions. He also appears regularly before the Maine Legislature on issues of interest to clients.

Honors and Distinctions

Highlighted as a leading environmental attorney by Chambers USA:  America's Leading Lawyers for Business, Tom also is included in The Best Lawyers in America, and has received James River Corporation’s Bronze Key Award for Environmental Achievement.  Tom also has achieved the highest professional rating (AV) awarded by Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.

Publications

Tom speaks regularly before professional and civic groups and has written extensively on a broad range of environmental law topics.  Representative publications include: “A Developer's Dream or Nightmare:  Maine's Site Location, Storm Water, and Traffic Permitting Laws,” Maine State Bar Association (2004); “Twelve Years with the Most Complex Noise Regulation in the United States,” National Conference on Noise Control Engineering, 2001; co-author: “Listing Distinct Population Segments of Endangered Species: Has it Gone Too Far?”, ABA’s Natural Resources & Environment, 2001; “The Year in Environmental and Land Use Law,” Maine State Bar Association (2000); “Unscrambling the Site Law Omelet,” Maine State Bar Association (1999); “Spotting Issues and Counseling Clients on Hazardous and Solid Waste Matters,” Maine State Bar Association (1996); “Practice and Procedure Before the Department of Environmental Protection-The DEP Permitting Process: Preparing the Applicant’s Case,” Maine State Bar Association (1993); and “Overview of DEP Solid Waste Facility Licensing Requirements,” Maine State Bar Association (1990).

Professional Activities

Tom serves as Vice-Chair of the American Bar Association's Environmental Transactions and Brownfields Committee. He has twice served on Governor or legislatively appointed committees to study revisions to Maine’s Site Location of Development Law. He also has served on DEP and State Planning Office-appointed committees to review Maine’s solid waste laws.