Legal news from around the state

The New Hampshire Insurance Department and the state Bureau of Securities Regulation have settled two cases against Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Northwestern Mutual for failing to supervise its agents, Secretary of State David Scanlan announced.

Under the settlement, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company must pay a $200,000 fine to the Insurance Department, and Northwestern Mutual Investment Services must pay a $175,000 fine plus investigative costs of $25,000 to the Bureau of Securities Regulation. Northwestern Mutual has also been issued a cease-and-desist order.

In 2021, the NHID’s Enforcement Division and the Secretary of State’s Bureau of Securities Regulation started an investigation of Northwestern Mutual’s New Hampshire branch offices, when the state discovered that some Northwestern Mutual agents in those offices sent tens of thousands of emails to states where they were not licensed to do business and misrepresented their experience and client base to prospective clients.

As part of the settlement, Northwestern Mutual will explore whether a technological solution exists that identifies instances where their representatives send similar advertising emails on a mass scale to prospects and whether their representatives are licensed in the states in which they intend to send the emails.

Northwestern Mutual will report its progress to the Insurance Department and the Bureau of Securities Regulation quarterly for one year, and will provide additional guidance to its registered representatives. Northwestern Mutual must ensure that all public communications are accurate, do not mislead prospects and do not solicit prospects residing in states where the registered representative does not hold a securities license. — NHBR STAFF

New Hampshire’s Only Law School Celebrates 50 Years

Hundreds of alumni, students, and current and former faculty and staff of the University of New Hampshire Franklin Pierce School of Law (UNH Law) gathered throughout the weekend of Sept. 29 through Oct. 1 to celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary. The weekend was filled with joyful mixers and memories, distinguished speakers, and even a golf tournament.

Ariel Rothstein Clemmer

“(The law school) was founded on a vision,” Dean Megan Carpenter says. “The 50th anniversary weekend was a tribute to this vision, and to the students, staff, and faculty through the years who built the school from a small unaccredited dream in a bull barn to a national and international powerhouse. It was a joy to celebrate the school and, especially, to celebrate the people who have been instrumental in its development.”

More than 200 people attended opening night on Friday at the Capitol Center for the Arts’ Bank of New Hampshire Stage in Concord. The sold-out event began with a cocktail party, followed by speakers Musinsky, Dean Carpenter, and UNH President James Dean, and concluded with a screening of a celebratory film chronicling the history of the law school.

The 22-minute film opened with a shot of the Loch Ness monster  then delved into the formation of the school and moved through its rich 50-year history, ending with a segment on its goals for the future. 

The film also highlighted the school’s many accomplishments and accolades, including the establishment of its acclaimed programs like the world-renowned Intellectual Property (IP) Program, the first-in-the-nation Daniel Webster Scholars Program, and the Hybrid Juris Doctor Program (the first of its kind approved by the American Bar Association). It is also the first school in the country to offer a graduate degree in IP designed for people not holding a law degree.

The law school, originally called Franklin Pierce Law Center (FPLC), was founded in 1973 by renowned lawyer, inventor, musician, composer, and Loch Ness Monster hunter Robert H. Rines. In addition to founding the law school, Rines founded the Academy of Applied Science, held hundreds of U.S. patents for his inventions (including high-resolution radar and sonar), designed early warning systems for the U.S. Army while he was a Signal Corps officer, wrote music for Broadway shows, influenced the Congressional rewriting of patent laws in 2000, and played a violin duet with Albert Einstein at the age of 11. — Tom Jarvis/ NH Bar News

These articles are being shared by partners in The Granite State News Collaborative. For more information visit collaborativenh.org. 

Executive Director chosen for state-wide legal aid call center and pro bono program

Ariel Rothstein Clemmer has joined 603 Legal Aid as executive director. Clemmer is expected to start on Nov. 20.

603 Legal Aid operates a statewide call center for people with low income who are facing civil (noncriminal) legal crises, such as eviction, foreclosure, divorce, bankruptcy and more. In addition to providing advice and referrals over the phone, the program also recruits and trains private attorneys to take cases pro bono.

Clemmer most recently served as director of the Center for Social Justice at Western New England University School of Law, where she created and oversaw a number of free civil legal services initiatives.

“What attracted me most is the organization’s unwavering dedication to making access to justice a reality for, and with, Granite Staters in need,” Clemmer said in a statement. “I am also incredibly excited to be returning home to New Hampshire and to be able to raise my family in the region where I grew up.”

Prior to running the Center for Social Justice at Western New England University School of Law, Clemmer served as the pro bono director of the Hampden County Bar Association directing the Hampden County Legal Clinic, and worked as a litigator for seven years in New York City.

Clemmer has served as an adjunct professor at Western New England School of Law teaching both Access to Justice and Law and Social Change courses. She is currently the chair of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court’s Pro Bono Committee, and serves ex officio on the state’s Access to Justice Commission.

Clemmer was recently named to the Association of American Law School’s 2023 Pro Bono Honor Roll and BusinessWest’s 40 under 40 class of 2022.  She has received numerous accolades for her work in pro bono, including the 2021 MA Women’s Bar Association Emerging Women in the Law Award and 2020 MA Lawyers Weekly Excellence in the Law, Excellence in Pro Bono Award.

Clemmer obtained her juris doctoratecum laude from Harvard Law School in 2010, a master of arts in early childhood education from Pace University in 2007, and a bachelor of Arts summa cum laude from the University of Richmond in 2005.