Representing company in acquisition of brownfields real estate (site of former paper mill), water rights, fish egg import license, and all necessary land use and environmental permits and submerged land leases for construction and development of large land-based North Atlantic salmon farm on Penobscot Bay.

In a putative class action in Maine Superior Court filed on behalf of borrowers with mortgages allegedly discharged improperly by Bank of America, Pierce Atwood helped the bank obtain a voluntary dismissal of all claims in the face of the bank’s motion for summary judgment. Quebbeman v. Bank of America, N.A., Maine Superior Court No. BCD-CV-15-01 (Order dated November 9, 2015).

We successfully defended a major retailer in parallel federal multi-district and state level class actions after a data security breach resulted in exposure of electronic payment card data.

Obtained summary judgment for former vessel owner and aquaculture company, dismissing Jones Act and maintenance and cure claims.

Pierce Atwood successfully obtained the discharge of a mechanic’s lien asserted by a contractor on the basis that the retainage sought in the mechanic’s lien was performed beyond the statutory limitation period. 

Prevailed on summary judgment to obtain dismissal of privacy tort claims against a major supermarket.

On behalf of North America’s largest vinyl siding manufacturer, we recently obtained dismissal of breach of warranty and consumer protection claims in a putative nationwide class action filed in the Northern District of New York.  The court held that the four named plaintiffs’ claims were not subject to personal jurisdiction in New York, and based its decision in part on the Supreme Court’s 2017 decision in Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. v. Superior Court.

We represented a check processing company and its debt collector affiliate in a series of putative class actions filed in California, Kansas, Maine, New York, and North Carolina, and consolidated in Multi-District Litigation in the District of Maine.  After obtaining dismissal of all of the lawsuits originally filed outside of Maine, we negotiated a favorable nationwide class action settlement for our client of all remaining claims.

John Bulman is currently sitting on a Dispute Review Board for a nuclear power plant construction project. Industry professionals are chosen to sit on Dispute Review Boards by the interested parties involved with a construction project for their experience, their independence, their commitment to the project, and their training as mediators and arbitrators. 

Red Shield Environmental Chapter 11 (Bankr. D. Me.). Represented Fort James Operating Company in settling disputes concerning the ongoing vitality of deeded use restrictions following the sale of assets and assignment of leases.

Represented developer Stephen Duprey in connection with the acquisition and financing of a mixed-use restoration project in Concord, New Hampshire, involving the former Eagle Hotel building and two neighboring buildings on Dixon Avenue with a total of nearly 100,000 square feet of space.  This project received $13 million in New Markets Tax Credit support.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has been working with representatives of the Libyan provisional government to restructure its electricity market to attract needed private investment. Although any recommended changes likely will not be implemented until the civil war ends, Pierce Atwood attorney Julia Weller has been asked to draft a new Electricity Market Law for Libya to introduce international best practices, establish a phased introduction of competition and create a new independent regulator.