Public Utilities:
An Experienced New England Practice with International Connections

At Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC (DRM), delivering high quality legal services and personal attention to clients are our highest priorities. A solid reputation spanning 57 years and a dynamic, expanding practice with more than 85 attorneys and legal professionals provide the measures of our success. Our selection as Lex Mundi’s Vermont member firm places us among 160 prestigious law firms in 99 countries.

Vermont’s Most Respected Regulated Utilities Legal Team

Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC has the most active public utilities group in Vermont serving clients in the telecommunications, natural gas, electricity and cable industries from throughout the country and abroad. DRM’s Public Utilities Group combines many years of experience working with the regions’ public utilities commissions and federal agencies. Led by DRM Managing Partner John H. Marshall, the attorney New England Business Magazine once called “a pivotal player in Vermont’s economy,” our public utilities team is known and respected throughout the northeast.

DRM’s Public Utilities Attorneys Have a Solid Track Record

From electricity generators to cable television providers to telecommunications carriers, companies needing Certificates of Public Good and other approvals, or under the regulatory jurisdiction of the state’s Public Service Board turn to DRM when they need credible, substance-focused advocacy. DRM’s recent accomplishments in the utility area include:

• leading a client through a regulatory process that gained approval for on-site storage of spent nuclear fuel rods in dry cask silos.
• obtaining government approval and public acceptance for the acquisition of a major Vermont electric utility by a foreign buyer.
• obtaining regulatory approvals that allowed a foreign company to acquire and operate a group of generating facilities, with the state itself as an opposing bidder.
• obtaining franchises for the state's largest cable companies.
• developing and gaining approval of the first incentive regulation plan in Vermont for an energy utility.
• helping utilities to obtain regulatory approvals for difficult-to-site transmission and generating facilities
• obtaining Vermont's first eligible-telecommunications-carrier designation for a competitive carrier.

We pride ourselves on providing utility clients with a credible, strategic approach to their regulatory objectives, avoiding administrative litigation whenever possible and focusing on substance when litigation is necessary.

Many regulatory processes in Vermont require formal hearings, witness preparation, presentations before the quasi-judicial Public Service Board and cross-examination; but many do not. DRM attorneys understand the process inside but importantly outside of the hearing room. We take a practical, wholistic approach toward effective, long range solutions.

In addition to appearing before the Vermont Public Service Board and the Supreme Court, the firm has represented clients before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and public-utility commissions throughout the region.

DRM’s Public Utilities Experience Reaches Every Regulated Industry

• Telecommunications - We represent competitive-access, cellular, and incumbent carriers in a variety of regulatory and transactional matters. We obtained certification of Vermont's first facilities-based, competitive-access provider and first cellular, eligible telecommunications carrier.
• Natural Gas - We represent Vermont's only natural gas company, serving as counsel for the introduction of transportation to its system and the development of an alternative-regulation plan.
• Electric - We serve as outside counsel to electric utilities in major administrative proceedings, litigation and transactions. We represented all of Vermont's electric utilities in a $4 billion power purchase from Hydro-Quebec. We represented the owner of the state's largest generation station in connection with its sale to a new owner.
• Cable - We handle regulatory, franchise-renewal and transactional work for cable companies. We recently represented a large cable company in connection with the renewal of its franchises in Vermont.
• Environmental/Site Assessment - We have handled site approvals for all types of utilities, including numerous telecommunications tower sites throughout the country, a 52-mile, 450-kilovolt, direct-current transmission line in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom and natural gas pipelines serving northern Vermont.

Based in Vermont and New Hampshire, connected throughout the world

As the exclusive member firm for Vermont of Lex Mundi, the world’s leading association of independent law firms, DRM has immediate entrée to more than 20,000 lawyers in 160 prominent and successful law firms with 560 offices in 99 countries. The firm’s association with Lex Mundi gives DRM’s clients the added benefits of:

• access to local market knowledge and experience
• relevant industry expertise
• sound business and language skills
• responsive service

Areas of concentration:

Utility Acquisitions

Telecommunications Regulation

Permitting/Site Assessment

Electric Distribution & Transmission Utilities

Electricity Generation Utilities/Projects

Cable Television Franchises

Sophisticated legal talent at an excellent value

DRM’s New England location attracts lawyers and legal professionals with national-level talent who choose high-quality lifestyles in the smaller cities and towns of Vermont and New Hampshire. For DRM’s clients, that means you get the personal attention and value associated with a smaller law firm, without sacrificing talent, depth or quality.

To explore how DRM’s Public Utilities Group can help you win approval in Vermont, contact Practice Group chair John H. Marshall or Vice-Chair Nancy Malmquist

A full-service New England law firm

Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC is a full-service, regional law firm. As clients’ needs expand into other areas of law, the firm’s wide range of legal specialties and commitment to vigorous collaboration across practice areas can provide seamless, cost-effective legal representation.