August 13, 2008
(Lebanon, N.H.) Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC will add two new attorneys in its Lebanon office to better meet the needs of the expanding Upper Valley business community. In addition, Kimberly M. Butler, a DRM director and business law attorney who has been associated with both the Littleton and Lebanon DRM offices, is now based full-time in Lebanon. The expansion of DRM’s office was announced today by Managing Partner John H. Marshall.
N. Jonathan Peress, who was formerly the attorney for air quality issues, and later the chief counsel for administrative litigation in Vermont’s Agency of Natural Resources, will join DRM’s Real Estate and Environmental Law Group on Sept. 1. He joins DRM from the Albany office of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLC, an international law firm headquartered in New York with more than 1,400 attorneys in 27 offices. Peress has extensive experience representing electric generation and industrial facilities on environmental permitting and compliance matters. He has counseled electric generating facilities, renewable energy providers and industry trade groups regarding climate change initiatives and opportunities for monetizing greenhouse gas reductions.
Peress serves as vice chair of the American Bar Association Air Quality Committee, and he has addressed regional and national organizations such as the Environmental Council of States, the New England Council of Public Utility Commissioners, the Air and Waste Management Association and the National Association of State Energy Officials on environmental and regulatory issues. A 1992 graduate of BrooklynLawSchool, Peress was associate general counsel at the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources, where he authored many of Vermont's air quality regulations and represented the state in legal efforts addressing air pollution policy development, rulemaking and litigation regarding interstate air pollution control. He was the agency's counsel in proceedings before the Public Service Board and in land use permitting under Act 250. He and his family reside in Lebanon where he previously served on the City's Planning Board.
Sheila Renner Grace joined DRM’s Public Utilities Group on July 1 from the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, where she has built a distinguished reputation over the past nine years. At MDPU, Renner Grace conducted regulatory hearings on the siting of electric generating facilities and transmission lines; coordinated the department’s review, monitoring and verification of energy efficiency plans; and assisted the department in forming policy on wholesale electric market issues. A 1994 graduate of Suffolk University Law School, she began work in DRM’s St. Johnsbury Office in July and will be based out of DRM’s Lebanon office commencing on September 1.
An active member of DRM’s Business Law Group for more than a decade, Butler represents clients throughout New Hampshire and Vermont, as well as nationally, on matters related to business formation, general business operational questions, business financing and refinancing transactions, commercial leasing matters and business succession planning. She works with developers on commercial real estate transactions, including property acquisition and sale, due diligence, land-use permitting and leasing. She is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Villanova University School of Law. Butler, who is managing director of the Lebanon office, played a key role in transitioning the former Daschbach, Csatari and Young legal practice into DRM’s seventh office in Vermont and New Hampshire in 2007.
“We are very pleased to add these talented and experienced attorneys to our Upper Valley team, and I am pleased that Kim Butler will be resident in our Lebanon office” said John H. Marshall, DRM’s managing partner. “We believe the Upper Valley needs its own full service law firm, and these changes will enable us to greatly expand the services that DRM can offer in Lebanon.”
DRM, with more than 65 attorneys in seven offices in Vermont, New Hampshire and New York, provides legal services to local, national and international clients in practice areas that include litigation, business law, labor and employment, captive insurance, environmental law, trust and estates, family law, tax law, public utilities, real estate, health care, intellectual property, creditors rights, venture capital and insurance defense. The firm represents clients in legislative, regulatory and public affairs through the Government and Public Affairs group. DRM is the law firm member for Vermont of Lex Mundi, the world's leading association of independent law firms.
