Small State Capital Provides Big Legal Opportunities
August 19, 2009
State and Main streets intersect at the heart of Montpelier, where dozens of VLS graduates work to strengthen the state and empower its people.
In Montpelier, Vermont, the term "State and Main" needs no clarification. It is the epicenter of this small state capital, the intersection that brings together not only the two main streets, but the architectural features of the 1800s with the communication tools of the 21st century. Within blocks of this downtown intersection, dozens of Vermont Law School graduates put their legal skills to work each day in state government, law firms, nonprofits and private businesses. The quaint look and feel of Montpelier belies the scope of the lawyers' reach.
Of nearly 150 VLS alumni who list themselves as working in Montpelier, roughly half are identified as state government employees-and many more work at state agency headquarters in nearby Waterbury.
From his second-floor office at 50 State Street, David Farnsworth JD/MSEL'93, senior associate of the Regulatory Assistance Project (RAP), works as a utility regulatory consultant with ministries and commissions in Mozambique, Swaziland, and Tanzania. Partners in his office-all former utility regulators-are working with colleagues in India, South America, and the European Union, with the aim to devise the best approaches to cap-and-trade systems that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Before joining RAP in 2008, Farnsworth served as a hearing officer and staff attorney with the Vermont Public Service Board, during which time he spent five years on the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative staff working group. And beyond the regulatory matrix, Farnsworth works with low-income advocates to promote energy efficiency measures for their clients.
The mission, he says, is to develop an approach to climate change policy "that will be the best for everybody.
"My work on climate change policy is based in large part on the background I gained as an attorney at the PSB and on my experience at VLS as a student interested in environmental policy and administrative law," Farnsworth says, crediting the time he spent as a research assistant for Professor Dick Brooks in the early 1990s with educating him on "the various iterations" of the Clean Air Act.
A block west of Farnsworth's office, Susanne Young JD '81 spends her days on the fifth floor of the Pavilion building, where she counsels Governor Jim Douglas on a wide range of legal matters that might fall on her desk. During the legislative session, it means filtering her way through every bill that will require the governor's signature. A former editor in chief of the Vermont Law Review, Young has served as the governor's general counsel since Douglas first took office in January 2003. Before that, she served as his deputy when he was state treasurer. Young says she never anticipated that she would serve as the chief legal adviser to a governor.
"It's all been very serendipitous in that respect," she says. She got her start in state government while working in the Vermont Attorney General's office while still a student at VLS, which prompted her to set her sights on criminal procedure. She later clerked with the chief of the AG's criminal division, followed by a year's clerkship in Chittenden District Court with the venerable Judge Edward Costello. She then returned to the AG's office, where she would spend 16 years.
"I really fell in love with criminal law," says Young, who manages to keep close ties with that area of law as the governor's liaison to the state's criminal justice system and to the AG's office.
Charlie Merriman JD'95 has gone public, private, and may soon be public once again in his legal career. Merriman says he decided to become a lawyer after an earlier career in commercial real estate in Cleveland, Ohio, left him "bored to tears." After law school, he spent nine years as an attorney with the Vermont Tax Department, during which time he defended the state's new education funding law against a lawsuit brought by the town of Killington. The case made it to the Vermont Supreme Court, which heard Merriman's argument during the court's annual spring session held at VLS (Merriman proved successful in the 2003 decision).
By 2006, Merriman decided to leave state government and go private, joining the Montpelier firm of Tarrant, Marks & Gilles, where he is now partner. With the firm's focus on municipal law, much of Merriman's caseload has involved land use law and property right-of-ways.
"I wound up working with towns, and grew to appreciate the central role that government plays in keeping this unique character or Vermont-this participatory democracy of Vermont-alive," he says. It's an appreciation that recently led Merriman to declare his candidacy to be Vermont's next secretary of state, where there will be a vacancy with the current office holder, Deb Markowitz, running for governor.
Merriman remembers attending his first Vermont Town Meeting—a storied tradition in the state—while still a student at VLS.
"It just blew me away," he says, equating the experience with something akin to a Quaker Friends' meeting. "People just stand up and say what is on their minds. It is not something I experienced in the Midwest. That was my first experience with what Vermont politics were like."
From the downtown offices of the Conservation Law Foundation, Chris Kilian JD/MSL'91 has chalked up major legal victories pursuing violations of the Clean Water Act. A recent federal court ruling found in CLF's favor in a high-profile stormwater pollution case brought against the Massachusetts Highway Department. Another pending federal case involves an appeal of a permit that CLF argues has contributed to nitrogen pollution in the Upper Narragansett Bay. Many of CLF's actions have been aimed at the state of Vermont's Agency of Natural Resources—cases in which Kilian, a vice president at CLF, has found himself squaring off against fellow VLS alumni representing the state. But Kilian says such situations rarely prove awkward.
"I think it's a collegial group and people tend to find common ground in the fact that we went to VLS. Everybody is proud of the school. I think VLS does a great job training people," Kilian says, crediting the master's program with providing him "a leg up" when he came out of law school.
Warren Coleman JD'99 serves as Agency of Natural Resources' general counsel, overseeing a staff of 13 attorneys handling issues ranging from relicensing hydropower facilities to the hotly debated issue of allowing all-terrain-vehicles on state lands. While his agency is based in Waterbury, Coleman spends much of his time at the statehouse during legislative sessions, testifying before committees and coordinating with the governor's office.
Coleman enrolled at VLS after receiving his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University of Florida. With a "good grounding" in natural resources science and environmental economics, Coleman saw law as being "the third leg of the stool" that would give him "the ability to assess complex environmental issues."
"I wanted to be a part of the decision making," he says, noting that the broad environmental curriculum drew him to VLS over other schools he was considering. After graduating from VLS, Coleman moved to Boston for a position with a major firm, where he worked on behalf of electric cogeneration facilities in their efforts to acquire bank funding. He also handled siting and permitting issues for bringing the first transatlantic fiberoptic cable into the New England area. "It was a humungous undertaking," he says, calculating that one-and-a-half years with the large firm provided him with three to four years of experience. "They had some very impressive clients."
But his love for Vermont-and flyfishing-drew him back in the fall of 2000.
Vicky Parra Tebbetts JD'95, MSL'96 has taken a different direction in her legal career. As senior vice president of the Vermont Chamber of Commerce (headquartered at the edge of Montpelier city limits), Tebbetts heads up the Vermont Hospitality Council, the chamber's tourism division. With direct spending for goods and services valued at $1.6 billion a year, tourism is a critical component of the Vermont economy.
Tebbetts' position includes lobbying on behalf of the tourism industry and the issues that are vital to its success. For Tebbetts, the job combines advocacy, education, marketing, networking and leadership-areas in which a law degree trained her well. (She is still a member of the Vermont Bar Association and keeps current with her CLE training).
One recent accomplishment of her lobbying efforts included the creation of a grape and wine council in Vermont, in recognition of what Tebbetts calls "a burgeoning industry." Vermont is now home to about 20 active wineries.
"I really love the communication and advocacy, not in terms of litigation but in terms of the people, the relationships," says Tebbetts. "I think I have really found a great niche."
Christopher J. Curtis JD/MSEL'06 took to public service in his early 20s. In Vermont, he worked on political campaigns before heading to Portland, Oregon, where he worked at a substance abuse clinic. After testing out several different careers, Curtis says, "I realized pretty quickly that if I wanted to make an impact, I needed access to the law." He also had a solid mentor in his late father, David Curtis, a noted Vermont lawyer and legendary political figure in his day.
The younger Curtis, who entered VLS as a 33-year-old student, says, "I was looking for something that would marry my interests," and Vermont Legal Aid offered the answer. From his office on Court Street (two blocks from State and Main), Curtis assists low-income Vermonters with myriad legal challenges involving housing and public benefits, and lobbies at the statehouse on their behalf. One recent session found Curtis working to "mitigate the impacts" of a major change to Vermont's landlord-tenant law, and with state budget cuts looming, Curtis has labored to blunt the pain of funding cuts for Vermonters in need.
"Many of our clients are really very good advocates if they are given the opportunity to tell their story to someone," Curtis says. "Part of my job is to help draw their stories out of them and help them become better advocates for themselves."
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