Pierce Atwood represents commercial banks, savings banks, bank holding companies, trust companies, mortgage companies, and special purpose financial institutions of all sizes throughout New England, and the United States.

We also represent bank service companies, non-bank commercial and consumer credit providers, loan securitization companies, student loan guarantors, loan marketers, money transmitters, and others who participate in the financial services business.

The attorneys in this Group advise clients on formations of new entities;  mergers and acquisitions;  consumer financial services compliance; development, implementation, and delivery of new credit, deposit, insurance, non-deposit investment and electronic banking products and services; multi-state delivery of financial services; branch acquisitions and sales; drafting and lobbying legislation on banking; trust services; and general bank regulatory issues.

 

Pierce Atwood has had an active practice representing general contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, and owners in development and construction-related matters for over 30 years.  This practice includes negotiation of contract documents, contract administration matters and the prosecution and defense of construction claims in all courts and in arbitration proceedings.  The firm also has an active construction labor practice.  This practice includes handling secondary boycotts, “salting”, “double-breasting”, contract and Labor Board unfair labor practice cases, seeking TROs and injunctions against unlawful strikes and picketing, contesting multi-employer pension withdrawal assessments at arbitration and in court.

We serve as general counsel to a number of private independent secondary schools and colleges.  In that role, we advise on education matters, such as student management issues (admissions, academic support, discipline, accommodation of physical and mental disabilities, harassment/allegations of abuse, and tuition contract disputes); labor and employment matters (faculty contracts, employment policies, disciplinary procedures, terminations, discrimination and harassment, and union organizing campaigns); and governance issues (by-laws, articles of incorporation), as well as general business matters, such as real estate transactions, construction projects, environmental compliance, commercial transactions, and investment and tax-exempt organization counseling.      

We also represent the Maine Principals' Association, composed of principals and assistant principals from most public and private schools in Maine.  Representation includes employment contract advice to members and representation of the Association in interscholastic athletic matters, such as player and coach eligibility contests, Title IX compliance, discrimination complaints, recruiting violations, and athletic official agreements).

Practice areas serving clients in the education industry:

Pierce Atwood serves the day-to-day needs of hundreds of small businesses, from manufacturers to service companies in the high technology and life sciences sectors. We represent companies from the earliest stages of their formation and development through their growth into leaders in their industries. Whether it is the venture capital investment that will take your business to the next level, the acquisition of a critical piece of technology, the lease for your new offices or the disclosure required of a responsible participant in today’s securities markets, Pierce Atwood has the expertise and experience to help you grow.

Practice areas serving emerging businesses:

Pierce Atwood takes an interdisciplinary approach to addressing the needs of our health care clients.  Health care providers regularly seek our help in a wide range of matters, including employment, regulatory compliance and licensure, antitrust advice, tax-exempt financing, medical staff issues, and structuring health care ventures and similar transactions.  We also provide a full range of advice on questions of general corporate and business law to our health care clients

 

Practice areas serving clients in the health care industry:

Pierce Atwood blends deep legal expertise with hand-on executive and financial experience in one of the country’s three largest ski resort businesses.  We offer integrated solutions to the full array of financial, environmental, workforce, and other challenges facing today’s resort owners, developers, and operators.   

Practice areas serving clients in the leisure industry:

Pierce Atwood has experience in virtually all areas that affect insurance companies, and self insurance groups and programs, including their formation, corporate structuring, mergers and reorganizations, state insurance regulation, market conduct, and policy coverage issues.  We have advised insurers on a host of internal, structural, and operational matters, including bulk reinsurance transactions, extraordinary dividends, mutual policyholder dividend plans, Federal income tax issues, policyholder/shareholder governance matters, permitted business activities, TPA contracts, and contracts with vendors and service providers for insurers.  Our experience includes workers’ compensation, P&C, life and health, surety, and disability insurance fields. 

In addition to our corporate expertise, our attorneys team with our insurance clients on regulatory matters, including representation at state insurance departments and lobbying for insurance-related legislation. We also have more than 25 years of experience in insurance related lawsuits.  Whether it is a corporate fight for control of the company, or defending a class action for extra-contractual remedies, including punitive damages, we deliver tough advocacy for our clients.  When an insurer's regular defense counsel run into trouble, we have extensive experience in handling insurance issues on appeal.

Practice areas serving the insurance industry:

Pierce Atwood represents individuals and businesses across the spectrum of professional services.  Our clients include numerous health care providers, accounting, consulting, engineering and design firms, law firms and large number of financial services organizations.  Our professional services clients benefit from having available to them the full range of services the firm provides to its diverse client base, including business and tax planning, employee benefits advice, assistance in hiring and severance of professionals and key personnel, and compliance and regulatory assistance.

Practice areas serving clients in the professional services arena:

For over 75 years, Pierce Atwood has counseled the pulp, paper, and forest products industry in Maine and elsewhere to meet challenges and find solutions. In Maine alone, this vital industry spends over a billion dollars annually and employs tens of thousands of men and women who earn, on average, the highest wages of any workers in the state.

Pierce Atwood advises dozens of mills and companies in this key industry sector in virtually all areas of practice, including energy, environmental, health and safety, labor, land use and forestry, legislative and regulatory, litigation, and taxation. The firm's long history of representation of this industry has led it to be on the "cutting edge" of relevant legal issues in the Northeast and across the nation.  In addition, Pierce Atwood is counsel to the two primary forest products industry trade associations--the Maine Pulp & Paper Association and the Maine Forest Products Council.

Practice areas serving the pulp, paper, and forest products industry:

As the economy's retail sector continues to grow, so does the need for legal services from firms who understand this highly competitive economic environment.  Clients in the retail industry look to us for expertise in areas such as business formation, state and local taxation, employment, consumer credit, intellectual property protection, and real estate, including leasing, development and environmental.

 

Practice areas serving the retail sector:

Pierce Atwood represents a number of companies in connection with their licensing and acquisition of software systems.  We also represent a number of software developers in connection with their licensing with third party licensees.

 

Practice areas serving clients in the software industry:

Pierce Atwood has extensive experience in providing advice to companies and municipalities engaged in waste management, both as their primary business or as part of their ongoing operations. The firm's experience ranges from serving as lead counsel on dozens of new, expanded, or existing waste facilities, including landfills, incinerators, transfer stations, recycling facilities, and beneficial reuse sites, to providing day-to-day advice on a broad array of commercial, environmental, labor and litigation issues that confront waste management companies or industries coping with waste management issues. The firm's waste management clients include a publicly-traded waste management company, corporations with landfills or other waste facilities, recyclers, waste transporters, municipalities, and sanitary districts.

Practice areas serving clients in the waste management industry: