Pierce Atwood has handled thousands of matters in its 130-year history. If you know what you’re looking for, feel free to use the search field above. If you know the attorney or area of expertise most relevant to your needs, use the drop down menus. Or, if your search is not that specific at this point, select a practice area that is most relevant to your interests.
We work closely with the clothing company of a nationally known pop star to help protect and enforce the company’s trademark rights and negotiate various licensing and other business contracts.
When our client, BTS, an international management consulting and business training firm based in Stockholm, acquired Wizerize, a leading technology and consulting company based in Copenhagen, BTS turned to the Pierce Atwood immigration team for assistance with the design and implementation of cost-effective immigration strategies that would allow key Wizerize talent from Copenhagen to work collaboratively in the United States with the BTS Digital Services Division on the business integration of the Web 2.0 technology platform – Wizer® – developed and built by Wizerize.
We assisted a client in providing post-bankruptcy financing of approximately $70 million through mortgage and sale/leaseback arrangements on facilities in 10 states, and was heavily involved in the plan confirmation proceeding. Alterra Healthcare Corp. (Bankr. D. Del.).
We won a precedent setting appeal before the Texas Public Utility Commission involving a decision of the Electric Reliability Counsel of Texas (ERCOT) on behalf of our clients West Oaks Energy and Longhorn Energy. This PUCT decision rejected a retroactive market resettlement that had been ordered by ERCOT, resulting in a $10 million price reversal for our clients and others. In this case, ERCOT adjusted settled market prices, on a retroactive basis, for the December 1, 2010 through February 1, 2011 period , claiming there had been a “significant software or data error” that justified the price change. In the appeal to the PUCT we demonstrated that in fact there was no software or data error, simply an unhappiness on ERCOT’s part with how its own market design was functioning. The PUCT, by unanimous vote, agreed with us and also agreed that while prospective rule changes are needed from time to time it is extremely harmful to market participants, and to market confidence, to try and make these changes on a retroactive basis. This decision has also led to a potential reversal of a second market resettlement that was ordered by ERCOT. In that second case, and on behalf of firm client XO Energy TX, we had challenged an almost identical retroactive market resettlement as unlawful and contrary to system protocols. This second resettlement involved over $2.7 million. At ERCOT’s request this matter is now being held in abeyance until the next ERCOT Board meeting when it will be reconsidered. We are delighted with these outcomes and believe the PUCT decision is likely to put an end to unwarranted, after the fact price changes in the ERCOT market. We believe it also establishes very important precedent for all ISO electricity markets.
We assisted the Farnsworth Art Museum, located in Rockland, Maine, with a combined state and federal new markets tax credit financing, helping the museum to secure capital needed for critical repairs and improvements to the building. The NMTC investment has allowed the museum, which opened in 1948 and boasts a remarkable collection of over 15,000 objects, to stay open and continue welcoming more than 100,000 visitors annually.
Represented landowner Kendall F. Crocker III in successfully preserving an historic farm and approximately 300 acres of land located on Jewell Hill in Fitchburg, Ashby, and Ashburnham, Massachusetts. The land, known locally as Crocker Farm, was sold to The Trustees of Reservations and is now permanently preserved through a conservation restriction so that it can provide valuable scenic and public recreational opportunities for generations to come. Mr. Crocker, the Trustees, and all three municipalities worked together to preserve the land through a combination of donor fundraising, grants awarded to the municipalities through the Commonwealth’s Land Grant Program, and a sales price substantially below the appraised value.
Pierce Atwood successfully represented, on a pro bono basis, an 800-acre nonprofit facility that cares for hundreds of abused and neglected animals in Maine, after the town in which the facility is located refused to grant the property tax exemption to which the facility was entitled.
We achieved a property tax exemption for a valuable oceanfront property, used for charitable and religious purposes, in face of challenge by the Town where the property is located.
During Maine’s 2015 legislative session, our government relations attorneys helped to defeat various proposals to help protect the interests of our clients. We successfully defeated numerous proposals that would have been detrimental to our clients, including the defeat of a water extraction tax bill, a bill prohibiting contractor indemnification, and several solid waste bills.
