We negotiated the contract between our client Brown University and Ecosystem, the contractor, for a Thermal Efficiency Project that Brown is undertaking. The plan involves converting the university’s existing high-temperature hot water system to modern, highly efficient, lower-temperature hot water.

Represented investor in all aspects of converting a defunct paper mill into a biomass facility, including development, financing, power sale, fuel purchase, and renewable energy credits.

We are advising Cornell University, a private New York educational institution, on a number of solar PV and geothermal power projects it is installing in New York, as well as on general energy and policy matters affecting its energy sustainability program. Cornell is the largest energy user in New York State.  Cornell is also a founding member of the Coalition of Renewable Energy Users and Developers (CORE), an ad hoc group of New York renewable energy users and developers.

We have been engaged to represent Ocean Renewable Power Company, LLC in connection with its conversion into a corporation and a subsequent Series A financing.

We have advised the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) in relation to their student study or work abroad programs, and on employment matters.

We provided counsel to a venture capital fund in its investments in various entities including a developer of demand chain management software, a developer of clinical billing and practice management software and a developer of wind energy facilities.

The United States Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit vacated FERC's decision to withhold over-collections payments from our clients. Agreeing with seven firm clients, the court found that FERC's directive that PJM recoup over $37 million in previously ordered refunds associated with transmission line loss overpayments was arbitrary and capricious. We argued that, because financial market participants pay transmission line loss charges, and for the period at issue also paid for the transmission system through the payment of transmission charges, they were entitled to a fair share of the over-collections paid back to all other participants. The court agreed and found unreasonable FERC's decision to deny an allocation to financial participants while they were paying transmission charges and also challenged FERC's decision to first order such payments and then almost two years later change its mind and seek to claw back the refund amounts. The Court remanded to FERC for reconsideration and explanation. Black Oak Energy, LLC v. FERC, No. 08-1386 (Aug. 6, 2013). The remand also led PJM to agree to a stay of Delaware state court proceedings initiated by PJM to collect the amounts from the three of the marketers.

In an important victory for our client, Resource Real Estate (RRE), and for Maine landlords generally, the Maine Law Court reaffirmed that Section 8 is a voluntary program and that landlords do not engage in housing discrimination when they decline to participate in Section 8 for non-discriminatory, business reasons.

Pierce Atwood represents CEI-Boulos Capital Management, LLC, in all aspects of its opportunity fund management business. This includes the creation of a $20 million private real estate investment fund in partnership with Woodforest National Bank. CEI-Boulos Capital Management manages the fund, which is investing in real estate projects in areas designated as Qualified Opportunity Zones across Woodforest's 17-state footprint. The Opportunity Zone program is a new community investment tool established by Congress to encourage long-term investments in low-income urban and rural communities nationwide. The fund was recognized by Forbes as part of the Forbes OZ 20: Top Opportunity Zone Catalysts.

Our client, Maine Medical Partners, an affiliate of MaineHealth, identified a talented Pediatric Surgeon completing a term as Chief Resident in Pediatric General Surgery at the University of New Brunswick in Vancouver. The candidate was immediately eligible for licensure, but because she had completed both her medical education and residency in Canada, she was unable to proceed with an H-1B immigration strategy unless she completed all 3 steps of the United States Medical Licensing Exam, something which served no real professional purpose and which, with her very busy schedule as a Chief Resident and Pediatric Surgeon, she would prefer to avoid. We recommended and obtained O-1 "extraordinary worker" status for the physician, allowing her to avoid taking an otherwise unnecessary USMLE exam, and placing her in a position to begin her work at the earliest possible date providing critical pediatric surgical care within Maine's largest healthcare network, serving as a primary resource for The Barbara Bush Children's Hospital at Maine Medical Center, the leading provider of surgical care for children in Maine, southern New Hampshire and southern Vermont.

Assisting Troy Scarbrough, founder of CropLocal, Inc., in setting up his S corporation. CropLocal is a virtual farmers marketplace connecting local farmers to local consumers.

We are working with Central Asia on creation of regional electricity and gas markets to encourage coordination of cross-border interconnection investments.