Christopher R. "Chris" Smith

Having worked as an urban planner, as chair of the Portland Zoning Board, and inside state government, Phil is well acquainted with municipal and land use law. That experience, combined with his legal expertise, makes him extremely adept at counseling municipal officials and boards and obtaining land use approvals at local, state, and federal levels for real estate developers and property owners. And he’s just as equipped to help clients with legislative issues: he helped draft and pass...

Calm under pressure, dependable, and a true advocate for her clients, Mary is an experienced municipal and environmental law counselor. Having worked in the public sector for years before joining Bernstein Shur, she has a firsthand understanding of the issues faced by municipal and state employees and boards—and how to help her clients confront them. Her most recent public sector position was associate corporation counsel to the City of Portland, where she advised the city staff and cou...

Having represented businesses in hundreds of commercial real estate and loan transactions for nearly 20 years, Tom really knows the interests and concerns of real estate developers and investors and banks. That expertise comes from a wealth of experience in all phases of real estate development—from pre-development planning, land acquisition, and permitting and approvals, to construction, financing, leasing, and eventual sale. Tom’s insight and frank, detail-oriented approach make...

From startups to Fortune 500 companies, Matt Stein helps clients navigate, negotiate and close technology and intellectual property transactions involving software, SaaS, data processing, managed services, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. Matt understands the real world challenges and opportunities presented by these emerging technologies and provides clients with thoughtful, pragmatic advice to get complex deals done efficiently and responsibly. Matt focuses his practice on thre...

Having served as lead counsel to multi-national organizations on major M&A transactions, fledgling startups looking to raise capital, and countless other companies on virtually every matter in between, Chris has the experience and insight that runs the gamut of business law. His sharp business acumen and superior negotiating skills have enabled Chris to build his legal practice from the ground up to the highest level—all while keeping the facts straightforward and plainspoken. Even ...

As co-chair of Pierce Atwood’s energy infrastructure group, and a member of Pierce Atwood’s tax and business practice groups, Kris Eimicke has a unique blend of technical expertise and business experience. Kris focuses on complex business transactions, with a particular emphasis on highly structured financing transactions that utilize one or more tax credit and economic development programs, including renewable energy tax credits, the opportunity zone incentive, new markets tax cr...

Dick Spencer specializes in complex problems which require effective advocacy at the local and state levels and before administrative agencies, the state courts, and the Maine Legislature. He is among Maine’s leading experts in diverse areas including land use and conservation, municipal law, and public finance. Dick also advises multi-generational families on how best to transfer their Maine seasonal and other properties to the next generation. Dick’s approach to problems is intu...

Ben Marcus is a highly experienced transactional attorney. Ben has 33 years of experience representing clients throughout North America in complex commercial arrangements including equity and asset transactions on the buy and sell side, joint venture and development agreements, workouts and restructurings, and contract preparation and review (including the negotiation and execution of Saas and other hosted agreements, and hotel management agreements). Ben has represented companies in many dif...

Emily Cooke’s practice focuses on commercial transactions, compliance, and corporate governance for a range of clients, including banks and other financial institutions, health care organizations, insurance industry participants, educational institutions, nonprofit entities, and small businesses. She negotiates third-party vendor contracts for banking services, negotiates master services agreements for outsourcing critical processing functions for national bank and insurers, and provide...

Bill Stockmeyer devotes his practice to advising municipalities, schools, and other local government entities on a wide variety of ever-evolving financial and business matters. Leader of the firm’s Public Finance Group, Bill is rated AV, the highest rating awarded by Martindale Hubbell, is listed in Best Lawyers in America in both Public Finance Law and Education Law, and is elected to the American College of Bond Counsel. Bill guides clients through bond issuance, budgetary matters, sc...