Education

Yale Law School, J.D.; Editor, Yale Law Journal

King’s College, Cambridge University, B.A.

Dartmouth College, A.B., summa cum laude

Experience

  • Worked collaboratively with a client to develop and obtain approval of Vermont’s first Alternative Regulation Plan and recently obtained approval of the Plan’s renewal. The plan has enabled the client to focus on its business objectives rather than recovering its costs through litigation.
  • Obtained Public Utility Commission approval for the acquisition of two of Vermont’s largest electric utilities. The approval proceedings involved numerous interveners adverse to the transaction. John worked with the client, regulators and other parties to settle as many issues as possible and litigated remaining issues to a timely decision approving the acquisition.
  • Helped to address a transmission utility’s need to obtain easements for a new high-voltage line. He teamed with the client’s CEO to reach settlements with landowners, often meeting with them in their kitchens or living rooms.
  • Obtained franchise renewals for the state’s largest cable-television systems, addressing state regulatory concerns within the limited criteria for renewal established by federal law.

Admissions

Vermont, 1977

U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, 1978

Memberships & Activities

Holds Martindale-Hubbell’s AV® Preeminent™ Peer Rating, the highest rating attainable. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2013, having been continuously recognized by that organization for more than a decade, and he was named Best Lawyers Montpelier Area Environmental Lawyer of the Year for 2013. (Best Lawyers’ Montpelier area includes St. Johnsbury.)

Ranked among the top five percent of attorneys in Vermont by Super Lawyers® magazine for his work in the areas of utilities, energy & natural resources and communications law.

Served for six years as chair of the Vermont Bar Association Environmental Law Committee and three years as the chair of its Health Law Committee.

Served as a member of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Health and the Vermont Health Care Authority’s Advisory Committee on Universal Access.

Served as Chair of the Northeast Kingdom’s District Environmental Commission, which included serving on other District Environmental Commissions when members had conflicts.

Vermont Bar Association

Accolades & Awards

Listed in Best Lawyers®, Energy Law, Environmental Law, 1991-2025

Listed in New England Super Lawyers, Utilities, 2017

Community Involvement

Vermont Community Foundation, Board of Directors Chair

Vermont Public Television, Chair

Leads the Peacham Congregational Church as it transitions into an interfaith-focused, community-service congregation and meetinghouse

Publications

Regulation of Business & Labor in Vermont State Government and Administration

Presentations

On numerous occasions, presented on environmental and utility law, in addition to nonprofit governance.