Experience

John is a long time partner in Pierce Atwood’s Energy Group, with a national and international reputation in the energy field.  He has a broad range of substantive experience in energy and utilities law and focuses on regulatory issues, renewable energy, energy project finance, and international and cross-border transactions.  John has worked within the U.S. on behalf of clients before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the U.S. Department of Energy, and state public utility commissions on a wide variety of issues pertaining to the electric utility, nuclear power and gas industries, including mergers and acquisitions, project finance and IPP industry issues, conservation and demand regimes, gas transmission, renewable energy and greenhouse gas policy, and other proceedings pertaining to the generation, transmission, importation, distribution, and pricing of electricity and gas services.

John has been involved in all aspects of energy project development, including financing, power contract negotiations, permitting, and licensing activities.  He has participated in approximately 200 non-utility power projects and associated power purchase agreements and has acted as an arbitrator in IPP-utility power purchase agreement disputes.  He has served as lead counsel on the financing of several large power projects in the United States, in U.S. utility merger and acquisition cases and in transmission expansion programs.

John enjoys substantial international experience and has acted as a key legal advisor to government ministries, non-governmental institutions, and private investors in approximately 50 countries around the world including, Africa, Asia, Central Asia, Central and South America, Europe, and the Mid-East.  His international experience includes project development and finance; renewable and sustainable energy projects; global warming and CO₂ offset trading and greenhouse gas emission projects; oil and gas sector agreements; pipeline allocation and related oil and gas project issues; power pools, power markets, market design and cross-border trading; complex corporate and commercial transactions; and nuclear issues.  John currently is serving as lead counsel in connection with the development and financing of a large gas fired generation project in the Mid-East, and as an advisor to sovereign governments in the Caucuses and in Asia in connection with cross-border power transmission projects.  John also is currently engaged in energy market opening and energy market design issues in Europe.  John’s international clients have included the World Bank, USAID, Asian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, host governments, private investors, project developers, and major energy customers.  Within the United States, clients John has advised include Central Maine Power Company and its affiliates, with whom has worked with for over 25 years, Energy East Corporation, Maine Yankee Atomic Power Corp., and Nextera Energy.  He also advises the State of California, through the office of the Governor and the Department of Water Resources, on a series of energy, contract and litigation matters.

Special Skills

John is fluent in French and can speak Spanish.

Honors and Distinctions

John has consistently been listed in The Best Lawyers in America, for utility and energy law, has achieved the highest professional rating awarded by the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, and is listed in New England Super Lawyers.

Publications

John speaks extensively throughout the United States and the world on energy restructuring and regulation activities.  He is the author of several articles, book chapters and papers in the energy field, including “Carbon Offset Trading:  US Legislation and the Global Response,”, New England Clean Energy Council, June 2009; “Diversified Leadership for Moving Beyond the Carbon Economy in the United States,” with Keith Wheeler, Beyond the Carbon Economy:  Energy Law in Transition, 2008 (Oxford University Press); “Key Criteria for New Generation Investment,” 7^th ERRA Energy Regulation & Investment Conference, Budapest, Hungary, April 2008; and “Contemporary United States Energy Regulation,” with Donald Zillman, Regulating Energy and National Resources, 2006 (Oxford University Press).

Professional Activities

A partner with Pierce Atwood since 1983, John is active in the Energy Bar Association, the Inter-American Bar Association, the International Bar Association and the Maine State Bar Association.  John serves on the Board of Trustees of the American University in Bulgaria, the Maine International Trade Center; the University of Maine Board of Visitors; and the World Affairs Council of Maine.  John also is a member of the Yale Chernobyl Forest Committee.