DRM Energy and Telecommunications Group:
An Experienced New England Practice with International Connections

Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC is known throughout New England as one of the premier energy and telecommunications practices in the region, delivering high-quality, responsive legal services with personalized attention to each client’s needs. A solid reputation spanning 58 years and a dynamic, expanding practice with more than 80 attorneys and legal professionals provide the measures of our success. DRM ranks first in Vermont with the greatest number of attorneys listed in The Best Lawyers in America® 2009. Our selection as a Lex Mundi® member firm places us among 160 prestigious law firms in 99 countries.

Energy and Telecommunications Lawyers with Depth, Focus and Industry Knowledge

DRM’s highly active energy and telecommunications team is respected throughout the New England region, having amassed decades of regulatory and transactional experience in virtually every facet of energy and telecommunications law. Whether representing clients with a sustained presence in the region or assisting companies to navigate the area’s regulatory environment for the first time, DRM’s team of skilled practitioners, paralegals and administrative assistants provide exceptional legal services in all types of energy and telecommunications matters.

Led by Practice Group Chair John H. Marshall, the attorney New England Business magazine called “a pivotal player in Vermont’s economy,” our team includes leaders in the field of energy and telecommunications law - dedicated attorneys that have developed a strong reputation both for their focused knowledge and for providing clients with top-quality legal services.

Areas of Practice

DRM’s Energy and Telecommunications Group practice areas include the following:

• Telecommunications
  We represent competitive local exchange carriers and wireless service providers in a wide variety of regulatory and transactional matters, including acquisitions and mergers, certification, financing, environmental compliance, leasing, title work, insurance coverage and virtually all aspects of land use/regulatory permitting of line-based and wireless communications facilities. We obtained approvals for the purchaser in the ground-breaking sale of the Verizon exchanges and businesses in Vermont.
  
  We have litigated cases before courts and administrative agencies to secure our clients’ rights to complete projects, acquire facilities and provide services. We obtained certification of Vermont's first facilities-based, competitive-access provider, as well as its first cellular, eligible telecommunications carrier. We have represented carriers on major site development projects in the New Hampshire Lakes Region, western New Hampshire, the Berkshires region of Massachusetts and the entire state of Vermont. We have served as counsel for parties acquiring and selling large portfolios of communications towers spanning the United States and Canada.


• Electric Energy
  We serve as outside counsel to electric utilities, generators and other market participants in major administrative proceedings, litigation and transactions. With clients in virtually every aspect of electric power generation, distribution and transmission, as well as financial institutions and industrial-end users, members of the Energy and Telecommunications Group have successfully assisted with acquisition and financing transactions, regulatory approvals and resolving environmental and siting issues.
  
  In coordination with our Legislative Affairs Group, DRM has also undertaken major policy initiatives on behalf of electricity market participants. We represented all of Vermont's electric utilities in a $4 billion power purchase from Hydro-Quèbec and facilitated the purchase and sale of the state's largest generation station while overseeing a multi-state and federal approval process. More recently, we have represented a national transmission provider obtaining approvals in connection with acquisitions and divestitures, its merger with a foreign company and siting approvals for transmission upgrades.


• Project Permitting, Environmental/Site Assessment and Litigation
  Our attorneys have represented a wide range of developers involving all types of energy and telecommunications projects. We have handled siting for over 300 telecommunications tower and non-tower sites throughout the region, major transmission projects (including a 52-mile, 450-kilovolt, direct-current transmission line in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom) and natural gas pipelines serving northern Vermont.
  
  Over the past decade, our attorneys have successfully represented the state’s major transmission provider (together with other Vermont utilities), as well as a national transmission company, in the complex regulatory proceedings to obtain approvals for expansive regional and local transmission upgrade projects. Working with our colleagues in litigation, the ETG team has litigated complex matters involving land use and renewable energy siting through the state and federal administrative and judicial systems.


• Renewable Energy
  DRM represents renewable energy providers in a broad range of regulatory and transactional matters.
  


• 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, and assisting with multiple aspects of line development ranging from title work to eminent domain proceedings.


• 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 state franchises and with meeting regulatory requirements for completion of line extensions into underserved areas of the state.
  

Recent Accomplishments on Behalf of Clients

While we are dedicated to providing excellent, responsive service on every client

matter at every level of significance, our reputation has been shaped by our ability to assist our clients with difficult and complex problems and projects that are tied to a client’s broader strategic objectives. Recent accomplishments of DRM’s Energy and Telecommunications Group include:

• Securing multiple regulatory approvals for the some of the largest and most complex transmission system upgrades in Vermont without protracted litigation.
  
• Obtaining approvals for the historic and complex purchase of all of the landline exchanges and telecommunications business in Vermont from the incumbent Bell Operating Company.
  
• Obtaining regulatory approvals that allowed a foreign energy company to acquire and operate a group of hydroelectric generating facilities, with the state as an opposing bidder.
  
• Completing real estate/environmental due diligence, leasing and land use permitting for a wide variety of projects ranging from wireless communications facilities to wind generation towers.
  
• Providing comprehensive legal services to obtain regulatory approvals for the acquisition and sale of electrical generation facilities regionally, nationally and in Latin America.
  
• Obtaining governmental approvals and public acceptance for the acquisition of a major Vermont electric utility by a foreign buyer.
  
• Acquiring franchises for the state's largest cable companies.
  
• Leading a client through a regulatory process that gained approval for on-site storage of spent nuclear fuel rods in dry cask silos.
  
• Representing a renewable energy credit holder in challenging the validity of credits provided by biomass energy facilities.
  
• Developing the first incentive regulation plan for an energy utility in the state and gaining public utility commission approval.
  
• Obtaining Vermont's first eligible-telecommunications-carrier designation for a competitive carrier.

A Reputation Built upon Client-Focused Values

The ETG has achieved its standing in energy and telecommunications law by following a few simple rules shared by everyone at DRM:

• We pride ourselves on understanding our clients and their businesses. We provide not only legal advice, but also value-added counsel to our clients to assist them in achieving their objectives in the most efficient and effective manner.
  
• We staff projects with attorneys and legal professionals who have the skills and experience needed to solve the problems that they are asked to solve.
  
• We are devoted to completing work on our client’s schedule at an affordable cost. This commitment has been the cornerstone of our practice and our success. We staff all of our projects so that our attorneys and our paralegals can provide excellent results on time and in a cost-effective manner.
  
• Our attorneys have strong professional relationships with the counsel and staff of the regulators that oversee our energy and telecommunications clients at every level of government, from the town clerk to the members of federal commissions. We provide energy and telecommunications clients with a credible, strategic approach to their regulatory objectives, avoiding administrative litigation whenever possible and focusing on substance when litigation is necessary.
  
• We use an inter-disciplinary approach to problem solving. Because of the broad range of legal proficiency DRM offers, we confer with lawyers and legal professionals from our other practice areas as needed to achieve positive outcomes.
  

Based in Vermont and New Hampshire, Connected throughout the World

As a member firm 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 focus
• sound business and language skills
• responsive service
  

Sophisticated Legal Talent at an Excellent Value

DRM’s New England locations attract 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, this means responsive, personal attention and value associated with a smaller law firm, but without sacrificing talent, depth or quality.

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 focused knowledge and experience and commitment to vigorous collaboration across practice areas can provide seamless, cost-effective legal representation.

To explore how DRM’s Energy & Telecommunications Group can help you achieve your goals, contact Practice Group chair John H. Marshall or Vice-Chair Nancy Malmquist.