Leadership Changes Announced at Downs Rachlin Martin

Business law attorney Paul H Ode, Jr of Burlington has been elected managing partner and chief executive officer of the law firm Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC. Ode took over on January 1 for John H. Marshall, who has held the post since the firm first adopted a managing partner governance model in 2002.
Ode was elected by the firm s directors in December. He had previously served as deputy managing partner and is a former chair of the firm s Business Law Group. He joined the firm in 1982 after completing a clerkship with U.S. District Court Chief Judge Albert W. Coffrin.
Ode received the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce's 2003 Community Excellence Award. He has served on the boards of directors of several community organizations including United Way of Chittenden County. He chaired the 2002 United Way campaign.
Employment and Labor attorney Peter B. Robb, who practices from DRM s Brattleboro Office, will serve as deputy managing partner and chief operating officer. Robb is nationally known for his representation of management in employment and labor law, and has been the chair of the Employment and Labor Practice Group at the firm for many years. When he joined DRM in 1995, he had accumulated significant credentials in the labor and employment field as an attorney with Proskauer Rose in Washington, D.C. He began his career as a field attorney in Baltimore and later as chief counsel to Robert P. Hunter at the National Labor Relations Board and as a supervisory attorney and trial trainer for the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
Eric D. Jones, who practices in both the Burlington and Lebanon, N.H. offices, will be the new chair of the Employment and Labor Practice Group. Jones represents regional and national employers in a broad range of matters, including the defense of employment disputes before state and federal courts and enforcement agencies. He regularly defends employers in lawsuits and administrative proceedings involving claims of sexual harassment, discrimination, wrongful discharge, wage & hour and leave law violations. Jones handles labor relations disputes, such as unfair labor practice proceedings before the National Labor Relations Board and labor arbitrations. He also counsels employers in establishing employment practices and policies and handling day-to-day human resources issues.
Burlington attorney Thomas D. Kohler, an intellectual property litigator and patent prosecutor, was elected to membership in the firm as a director after first joining DRM in the fall. Most recently, Kohler was a partner in the San Francisco office of Morgan Lewis & Bockius. He brings to DRM not only years of experience in patent prosecution and IP law generally, but also expertise in litigation of significant patent disputes--an area that DRM has targeted for growth.
DRM, with more than 85 attorneys and legal professionals in seven offices in Vermont and New Hampshire, provides legal services to local, national and international clients in practice areas that include litigation, business law, labor and employment, captive insurance, environmental law, trust and estates, family law, tax law, public utilities, real estate, health care, intellectual property, creditors rights, venture capital and insurance defense. The firm represents clients in legislative, regulatory and public affairs through the Government Affairs group. DRM is the law firm member for Vermont of Lex Mundi, the world's leading association of independent law firms.