John H. Marshall

• Worked collaboratively with a client to develop and obtain approval of Vermont’s first Alternative Regulation Plan and recently obtained approval of the Plan’s renewal. The plan has enabled the client to focus on its business objectives rather than recovering its costs through litigation.
• Obtained Public Utility Commission approval for the acquisition of two of Vermont’s largest electric utilities. The approval proceedings involved numerous interveners adverse to the transaction. John worked with the client, regulators and other parties to settle as many issues as possible and litigated remaining issues to a timely decision approving the acquisition.
• Helped to address a transmission utility’s need to obtain easements for a new high-voltage line. He teamed with the client’s CEO to reach settlements with landowners, often meeting with them in their kitchens or living rooms.
• Obtained franchise renewals for the state’s largest cable-television systems, addressing state regulatory concerns within the limited criteria for renewal established by federal law.

Vermont, 1977

U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, 1978

• Holds Martindale-Hubbell’s AV® Preeminent™ Peer Rating, the highest rating attainable. He is listed in The Best Lawyers in America 2013, having been continuously recognized by that organization for more than a decade, and he was named Best Lawyers Montpelier Area Environmental Lawyer of the Year for 2013. (Best Lawyers’ Montpelier area includes St. Johnsbury.) He is ranked among the top five percent of attorneys in Vermont by Super Lawyers® magazine for his work in the areas of utilities, energy & natural resources and communications law.
  
• Served for six years as chair of the Vermont Bar Association Environmental Law Committee and three years as the chair of its Health Law Committee. He served as a member of the Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Health and the Vermont Health Care Authority’s Advisory Committee on Universal Access. He also served as chair of the Northeast Kingdom’s District Environmental Commission, which included serving on other District Environmental Commissions when members had conflicts.
• Vermont Bar Association

Listed in Best Lawyers®, Energy Law, Environmental Law, 1991-2022

Listed in New England Super Lawyers, Utilities, 2017

John is active in local and regional organizations, providing his services pro bono to the Town of Peacham and other organizations in Peacham such as the library, church and historical association. He has served as chair of the board of directors for Vermont Community Foundation, Inc., and Vermont Public Television. John has served on the board of directors of Smart-Growth Vermont, the St. Johnsbury Railroad Heritage Society and Northeast Kingdom Habitat for Humanity, Inc.

Publication:

• John wrote an essay on regulation of industry for a book, Vermont State Government and Administration, published by the Snelling Center for Government and the University of Vermont.

Presentation:

• He has twice lectured in Karelia (a republic in the Russian Federation and Vermont’s sister state) on environmental and commercial law as part of Vermont’s Rule of Law Project.