The law firm of Diamond & Robinson significantly expanded its utility, energy and environmental practice areas by adding attorneys Richard H. Saudek, former Chair of the Public Service Board, and Ronald A. Shems, former Chair of the Natural Resources Board. “Teaming up with Ron Shems and Dick Saudek adds enormous horsepower to our already robust law firm. Ron and Dick are very talented attorneys who can easily handle highly complex legal and regulatory issues,” said M. Jerome Diamond, founder of Diamond & Robinson and three-term Vermont Attorney General.
Diamond & Robinson provides the highest quality counsel, litigation and government relations services to businesses, individuals, municipalities, and non-profit organizations with expertise in several practice areas including: commercial, employment, environmental, energy, utility, development, zoning, family, personal injury, worker’s compensation, consumer fraud, advertising, professional licensing, civil rights, property valuation, and state and federal trial and appellate law. It serves clients throughout Vermont, the United States and Quebec.
Richard H. Saudek joined the firm in February 2015, after 30 years as a principal in the Montpelier law firm of Cheney, Brock & Saudek, P.C. Prior to that, he served as Chairman of the Vermont Public Service Board and as the first Commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Service where Saudek was involved in all aspects of utility regulation, from telephone and electric rates to power contract negotiations. He was primarily responsible for the successful negotiation of power contracts between the State of Vermont and Hydro-Quebec, Ontario Hydro and the New York Power Authority. Saudek also served as the first president of HQ Energy Services (US) Inc., the marketing subsidiary of Hydro Quebec.
Saudek’s current practice includes representation of Vermont towns in the siting of wind and transmission facilities, taxation of hydroelectric plants, power supply contracts, captive insurance companies, and a range of corporate, non-profit and personal matters. Saudek is a Trustee of Marlboro College, the Vermont College of Fine Arts and the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont. Saudek is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan School of Law.
Ronald A. Shems joined Diamond and Robinson after four years as Chair of the Vermont Natural Resources Board, the agency that administers and enforces Act 250. He specializes in environmental, energy, administrative and appellate law. Ron has extensive experience with complex state and federal permitting, trial, and appellate proceedings. Ron was a founding partner of the Burlington firm Shems Dunkiel Kassel & Saunders. Prior to that, he worked for 15 years at the Vermont Attorney General’s Office, where he split his time between special assignments managing complex constitutional and regulatory cases, and as the Environmental Unit’s senior Assistant Attorney General. He is a recipient of the prestigious “Best Brief Award” presented by the National Association of Attorneys General for excellence in brief writing in the United States Supreme Court.
Ron is admitted to the practice of law in Vermont and Maine. Ron is a member of the Moretown Elementary School Board of Directors, Moretown Board of Civil Authority, Mad River Glen Cooperative Board of Trustees, and Board of the Energy Action Network. He received a BA from Clark University in 1981, and a JD and Masters in Environmental Law in 1985 from Vermont Law School.
Saudek and Shems join attorneys M. Jerome Diamond, Joshua R. Diamond, Steven P. Robinson and Jennifer Ciarlo Pacholek.