Education
- University of Chicago Law School, J.D. 1998, with honors
- University of Vermont, B.A. 1995, with honors
Bar Admissions
- Illinois (1998)
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (1998)
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2000)
- Vermont (2006)
- U.S. District Court, District of Vermont (2006)
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (2007)
- U.S. Supreme Court (2010)
- U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (2019)
Memberships & Affiliations
- Member, Chittenden County, Vermont and American Bar Associations
- Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors
- Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce Legislative Affairs Committee and Energy Subcommittee
- New England First Amendment Coalition, Vermont Committee
- Second Circuit Court Appeals, pro bono panel
Representative Matters
“Bet the Company” Litigation
- Obtained a permanent injunction after a trial on the merits for owners of a nuclear power plant who claimed that Vermont statutes were preempted by the Atomic Energy Act and the Federal Power Act. A copy of the opinion is here.
- Secured a decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirming that these Vermont statutes were preempted. A copy of the decision is here.
- Served as Vermont attorney for health information publishers who obtained a decision from the United States Supreme Court invalidating a Vermont statute that violated the First Amendment. A copy of the opinion is here.
- Served as Vermont attorney for large automobile manufacturers and local dealers in a month-long trial challenging fuel economy regulations.
- Obtained dismissal with prejudice of a 10b-5 securities class action brought against officers and directors of a publicly-traded company. A copy of the opinion is here. The Second Circuit affirmed this decision in a summary order.
- Represented a large biotechnology company after the Department of Justice refused to approve a merger and the target company sued. The case was successfully resolved when the company reacquired the target on superior terms and obtained approval for the new deal.
First Amendment Litigation
- Successfully represented trade organizations challenging a statute imposing labeling requirements for genetically engineered food.
- Obtained a dismissal and first-ever award of attorneys’ fees by a Vermont state court under Vermont’s anti-SLAPP law. A copy of the opinion is here.
- Procured access for Vermont newspapers to video recordings of a police chase and shooting and to personnel records concerning the viewing of pornography by city employees at work. A copy of the opinion is here.
- Secured a dismissal of a claim for equal access to online streaming of a newspaper’s political debate.
General Commercial Litigation
- Obtained a decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals that permitted a large captive insurance broker to proceed to trial on a constructive trust claim in a federal criminal forfeiture case. A copy of the opinion is here.
- Conducted an internal investigation for a large company who had an employee engage in embezzlement.
- Acquired a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction for a mechanical contractor after former employees took confidential information and started a competing company. Using computer forensic evidence, we were able to recover deleted e-mails showing that the employees had taken proprietary information and unfairly competed with their former employer.
- Assisted a former Vermont railroad who encountered problems when an adjacent land owner started to construct a building on the railroad’s property. We quickly obtained a preliminary injunction barring further construction and helped our client resolve the boundary dispute on favorable terms.
- Recovered a $7 million printing press from a customer who had fallen behind on payments to a commercial printing manufacturer.
- Represented a national restaurant business in trade secret misappropriation case with hundreds of millions of dollars in claimed damages.
- Represented an industrial gas manufacturer who was involved in an accident that caused third degree burns over 40% of a victim’s body. We successfully sued a third party for indemnification and ensured that our client received payment under an applicable insurance policy.
- Acted as an attorney for a franchisee in a preliminary injunction proceeding involving a non-competition clause. After expedited discovery and a contested evidentiary hearing, the franchisee settled on favorable terms and retained the right to sell the product in question.
- Represented a national restaurant chain in a preliminary injunction proceeding to force a franchisee to meet quality control guidelines.
Presentations
- Immunity, Vermont Bar Association, March 2016
- Genetic Engineering and the First Amendment, Vermont Bar Association, January 2015
- The Open Meetings Act, Lorman Education Services, June 2014
- Vermont Public Records Act: Criminal Investigations, Lorman Education Services, June 2014
- Discovery of Electronically-Stored Information, Vermont Bar Association, March 2014
- Trade Secret Misappropriation, Vermont Bar Association, March 2012
- Vermont Public Records Act, Vermont Bar Association, January 2012
- Admissibility of Electronic Evidence, Vermont Bar Association, October 2010
- Vermont Court Structure, Vermont Bar Association, October 2009
- Litigation 911: A Practical Guide to Emergency Relief, Vermont Bar Association, January 2009