Tom is a partner in Pierce Atwood's Environmental & Land Use Practice Group with over 25 years of experience in all areas of environmental and land use law, including adjudicatory proceedings, transactions, permitting, client counseling, enforcement, brownfield redevelopment and legislation. He serves on the firm's Management Committee.
Over his career, Tom has been lead counsel in several high-profile environmental matters. His accomplishments include:
- Lead environmental counsel on a $1.4 billion project to improve the reliability of Maine's electric power system. Now under construction, it is the largest transmission project ever built 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 part of Quebec.
- The successful licensing of two vast greenhouses (one 24-acres and one 18-acres), to grow tomatoes, the largest facilities 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.
- Tom also is the only private attorney over the past 25 years to have successfully led the licensing of a new landfill in Maine, a feat he has accomplished twice. He spearheaded the successful licensing of a state-of-the-art semiconductor fabrication facility, which obtained its applicable state licenses in 21 days, the minimum time required by state law. Tom's transactional experience has included serving as lead environmental counsel in public offerings, mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, site divisions, and project financings. He also has long advised the forest products industry on a variety of strategic environmental, natural resource and land use issues.
Honors & Distinctions
Highlighted as a leading environmental attorney (Band 1) 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® Preeminent™ awarded by
Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory.
Professional Activities
Vice-Chair, American Bar Association's Environmental Transactions and Brownfields Committee, 2004-present
Member, Maine State Bar Association, 1982-present
Twice served on Governor or legislatively appointed committees to study revisions to Maine's Site Location of Development Law
Served on Maine Department of Environmental Protection and State Planning Office-appointed committees to review Maine's solid waste laws
Civic Activities
Treasurer, Yale Club of Western Maine, 2007-present
Treasurer and Board member, Falmouth Little League, 1998-2003