News
Ritchie Berger named as BTI Client Service All-Star 2013
Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C. is pleased to announce that Ritchie E. Berger has been selected for inclusion in BTI Consulting’s list of The 2013 BTI Client Service All-Stars, in the area of Complex Litigation. The BTI Consulting Group (BTI) is a leading provider of strategic research to the legal community.
BTI Client Service All-Stars are selected from reviews by corporate counsel at the world’s largest business organizations, including the Global 500 and Fortune 1000. General Counsel at those organizations and their direct reports are asked by BTI to identify those attorneys who drive superior client relationships. Mr. Berger is one of only 307 attorneys nationwide and the only Vermont attorney selected.
Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C., with offices in Burlington, Vermont and Plattsburgh, New York, is one of the oldest and largest law firms serving Vermont and the Adirondack Region of upstate New York. For over 90 years, the Firm has served its clients in important cases, transactions and legal developments.
Shap Smith recently appeared on a panel with State Supreme Court Justices and legislators at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. to discuss tackling judiciary budget concerns
State Justices, Legislators on Panel Shared Success Stories on Tackling Judiciary Budget Concerns
State chief justices and court administrators met this week in Washington, D.C., to discuss policy priorities for the upcoming year and beyond. Many of them took time Thursday to join in or attend a panel discussion concerning best practices and methods for dealing with severe budgeting constraints.
They heard plenty about making do with less at the gathering at the National Press Club, held in conjunction with board meetings of the Conference of Chief Justices and the Conference of State Court Administrators. The 12-member panel made up of chief justices, court administrators and a couple of state legislators was moderated by power lawyers Ted Olson and David Boies, who for the past two years have co-chaired the ABA Task Force on the Preservation of the Justice System.
The program in Washington highlighted efforts in four states—California, South Carolina, Utah and Vermont—for, as the conference title put it, “Surviving the Economic Tsunami in State Courts: How Fresh Ideas, New Solutions and Inter-branch Cooperation are Replacing ‘Business as Usual.’”
After four years of dramatic reductions in judiciary budgets and increased demand for court services, Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Myron Steele, a panel member and also president of the CCJ, told the gathering: “One thing we’ve learned—we cannot manage our way out of the crisis. Layoffs, furloughs, reduced operating hours and, in Delaware, voluntarily reduced judicial salaries are not going to fill the widening economic gap.”
Two major themes emerged from the various presentations by panelists. First, there are a lot of efficiencies to be gained, such as Utah’s courts now being entirely paperless on the civil side and on track to be wholly that way. Second, more control of court systems and budgeting concerns can be gained through ongoing, open discussions and collaboration with legislators—who often don’t understand the problems that justice itself faces in underfunded courts, but can become helpful when they do.
In Vermont, for example, Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul L. Reiber and others worked closely with Shapleigh “Shap” Smith, speaker of state’s House of Representatives, on creating a unified court system out of a balkanized one.
Reiber and Smith had long been friends as practicing lawyers in the small state. They were able to undo an arrangement in which certain jobs in the court system were created by statute by what appeared to be political favors. For example, one courthouse had a caseload that justified having a judge for one week per month, even though it had three full-time clerks.
“We would not have gotten done what we did without his involvement,” Reiber said of Smith. “He was a strong voice in support of amending the law in a way that would give us more control over allocating our resources.”
In Utah, the civil courts are now paperless and the entire system will be, said panelist Daniel Becker, Utah State Court Administrator. “We’re asking judges to go on the bench without files, (and with) only a computer.”
Panelist Eric Hutchings, a member of the Utah House of Representatives, says the court system became so candid and transparent with all its financial records and spending that it gained the legislature’s trust for when it makes budgetary requests.
“They shook up the courts like I’ve never seen any corporation, public or private organization anywhere shake it up,” said Hutchings, who also is a financial services professional. Court system leaders also discussed detailed guidance in a compendium developed by the National Center for State Courts for helping legislatures understand the unique budgeting problems facing courts. It is titled “Principles for Judicial Administration” (PDF).
Speaking last, panelist and former ABA president Wm. T. “Bill” Robinson III, who helped launch the ABA task force, notes that lawyers as officers of the court have an obligation to speak out for adequate court funding. Efficiencies and technology will help in the protracted budget crisis, he says.“But there’s an underlying need below which the courts simply cannot provide access to justice.”
New England Super Lawyers Recognizes Thirteen Dinse Attorneys
Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew announces that eleven attorneys have been selected for inclusion on the New England Super Lawyers 2012 list in ten different classes, and two attorneys have been selected for inclusion on the Rising Stars 2012 list. Attorneys are identified as “Super Lawyers” based on extensive nomination and polling among New England attorneys aimed at identifying New England’s top attorneys in each class. Attorneys are identified as being “Rising Stars” based on extensive nomination and polling among New England attorneys who are asked to nominate the best attorneys who are 40 or under, or who have been practicing for 10 years or less.
The practice areas and the attorney(s) listed in each area for the New England Super Lawyers 2012 list are as follows:
- Business Litigation: Ritchie Berger, W. Scott Fewell, Karen McAndrew
- Business/Corporate Law: Jeffrey McMahan
- Civil Litigation Defense: Samuel Hoar, Jr.
- Employment & Labor Law: Jeffrey Nolan, Robert McKearin
- Estate Planning & Probate: Mark Langan
- Health Care Law: Spencer Knapp
- Personal Injury Defense: Medical Malpractice: John Monahan
- Real Estate Law: Molly Lebowitz
Afi Ahmadi and David Gurtman have been selected for inclusion on the Rising Stars 2012 list in the practice area of Business/Corporate Law.
Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C., with offices in Burlington, Vermont and Plattsburgh, New York, is one of the oldest and largest law firms serving Vermont and the Adirondack Region of upstate New York. For over 90 years, the firm has served its clients in important cases, transactions and legal developments.
Gurtman Presents at 2012 Renewable Energy Vermont Conference
Attorney Dave Gurtman presented on a panel entitled “Navigating Project Finance: Federal Tax Incentives” at the 2012 Renewable Energy Vermont conference. His presentation covered an overview of federal tax credits for renewable projects, the calculation of eligible basis, and tax equity structures.
Hoar Presented at Recent VBA Annual Meeting
At the recent VBA Annual Meeting, Sam Hoar presented on “Vermont Supreme Court Year in Review: Torts” and “Vermont Supreme Court Year in Review: Insurance.” Sam Hoar, Shap Smith, and Scott Fewell also presented on “Navigating the Environmental Liability Minefield.”
Hoar Named Co-Chair of the Vermont Bar Foundation Access to Justice Campaign
Sam Hoar has been named Co-Chair of the Vermont Bar Foundation Access to Justice Campaign. The campaign raises money from Vermont attorneys to fund fully the Vermont Poverty Law Fellowship and support the general funding activities of the Vermont Bar Foundation.
Dinse Attorneys Recognized by Best Lawyers
Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew announces that sixteen of its attorneys were recently selected by their peers for inclusion in the The Best Lawyers in America® 2013 (Copyright 2012 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, S.C.) in nineteen different practice areas. Since it was first published in 1983, Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as the definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 36,000 leading attorneys cast almost 4.4 million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor. Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers “the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice.”
The practice areas and the attorney(s) listed in each area are as follows:
- Commercial Litigation: Ritchie E. Berger, Samuel Hoar, Jr., Karen McAndrew
- Copyright Law: Brian R. Murphy
- Corporate Law: Jeffrey J. McMahan, Brian R. Murphy
- Employment Law – Management: Robert R. McKearin, Amy M. McLaughlin, Jeffrey J. Nolan
- Health Care Law: Spencer R. Knapp
- Immigration Law: Leigh Polk Cole
- Insurance Law: Barbara E. Cory
- Litigation – Environmental: Samuel Hoar, Jr.
- Litigation – Intellectual Property: Shapleigh Smith, Jr.
- Litigation – Labor & Employment: Amy M. McLaughlin
- Medical Malpractice Law – Defendants: Ritchie E. Berger, Samuel Hoar, Jr.
- Mergers & Acquisitions Law: Spencer R. Knapp, Brian R. Murphy
- Non-Profit / Charities Law: Brian R. Murphy
- Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants: Ritchie E. Berger, Samuel Hoar, Jr., Karen McAndrew, John D. Monahan, Jr.
- Product Liability Litigation – Defendants: Shapleigh Smith, Jr.
- Real Estate Law: Austin D. Hart, Molly K. Lebowitz
- Tax Law: Mark A. Langan
- Technology Law: Jeffrey J. McMahan
- Trusts and Estates: Mark A. Langan
Dinse, Knapp & McAndrew, P.C., with offices in Burlington, Vermont and Plattsburgh, New York, is one of the oldest and largest law firms serving Vermont and the Adirondack Region of upstate New York. For over 90 years, the firm has served its clients in important cases, transactions and legal developments.
Three Dinse Attorneys Prevail in Trademark Registration Appeal
Elizabeth Kleinberg, Scott Fewell and Jeff McMahan recently prevailed in a trademark registration appeal before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. The matter required appeal to the TTAB following a final refusal of registration by the Patent and Trademark Office. The firm obtained a reversal from the TTAB, securing registration of the trademark for the client. Liz Kleinberg and Jeff McMahan worked on the prosecution of the trademark application for registration. Liz was the primary author of the briefs to the TTAB and Scott Fewell argued the appeal before the TTAB at the Patent and Trademark Office in Northern Virginia.
Nolan Quoted Regarding Campus Threat Assessment in Chronicle of Higher Education
Jeff Nolan of Dinse’s Higher Education Practice Group was quoted in an August 10, 2012 article of the Chronicle of the Higher Education, which is the leading weekly publication devoted to coverage of higher education issues. In the article, which was titled “Campus Threat Assessment Teams Face Complex Task of Judging Risk,” Mr. Nolan was quoted regarding the typical composition of multi-disciplinary threat assessment teams on college campuses, typical processes by which teams receive reports of concerning behavior, typical assessment and management strategies, and the importance of obtaining information regarding the whole picture of what may be affecting and motivating a person of concern.