April 04, 2007
(Burlington) Paul H. Ode, Jr., has been named deputy managing partner and chief operating officer at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC, and Robert B. Luce and Thomas H. Moody will chair two of the firm's six general practice areas. Luce will chair the firm's Litigation Group and Moody will chair the firm's Business Law Group. All three directors are on the firm's Management Committee.
Ode, who has served in various management roles within the firm, will have primary responsibility for its day-to-day operations. He succeeds Kathleen H. Davis in this position. Davis will continue to lead the firm's fast-growing Captive Insurance practice. She has served as the deputy managing partner and chief operating officer for four years and prior to that was a member of the firm's Executive Committee.
Ode is a graduate of Cornell Law School and Middlebury College, is a former chair of the Business Law Section of the Vermont Bar Association, and serves as secretary of the United Way of Chittenden County. He is a director of the Greater Burlington YMCA and is a past chair of the board of directors of the Northern Vermont Chapter of the American Red Cross. He coaches youth soccer and has run eight marathons.
Moody will chair DRM's Business Law Group, an internal division of the firm that serves clients in the areas of general business transactions, general corporate law, captive insurance, estate planning, mergers and acquisitions, tax law, and venture capital. He succeeds Ode in this position. His practice areas include private equity transactions, mergers and acquisitions, international business transactions, and commercial finance. He is also the chair of the Business Law Section of the Vermont Bar Association. Moody is a graduate of Hobart College and Albany Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Albany Law Review. Moody is on the board of directors of Catamount Outdoor Family Center, is the vice president of the Green Mountain Bicycle Club, and is the director of Burlington Criterium.
Luce has been named chair of the Litigation Group, where he succeeds Bruce Palmer, who will refocus on the firm's insurance coverage practice. This group handles an array of legal interventions ranging from personal injury to insurance coverage to commercial contract disputes. Luce's personal practice areas include representation of brain injury victims and their families and commercial and personal injury litigation. Luce is a graduate of Boston University Law School and Williams College. He is a member of the board of directors and coordinator of legal affairs for the Brain Injury Association of Vermont and is a member of the Traumatic Brain Injury Group of the American Association for Justice.
Downs Rachlin Martin is Vermont's largest law firm with more than 60 attorneys working from offices in Brattleboro, Burlington, St. Johnsbury, Montpelier and Manchester, Vt., and Littleton, N.H. John H. Marshall continues to serve as DRM's managing partner and chief executive officer. Continuing practice area leaders are Debra R. Schoenberg of the Family Law Group, Lawrence H. Meier of the Intellectual Property group, Peter D. Van Oot of the Regulated Entities group, and Peter B. Robb of the Employment and Labor Group.
Legal services provided within these groupings include litigation, business law, labor and employment, captive insurance, environmental law, estate planning, family law, tax law, public utilities, real estate, health care, intellectual property, creditors rights, venture capital and insurance defense. DRM represents clients in legislative, regulatory and public affairs through the Government Affairs group. DRM is the law firm member for Vermont of Lex Mundi, the world's leading association of independent law firms.
