Legal Briefs: News From Around NH

Butenhof & Bomster team joins Sheehan Phinney

Sheehan Phinney has announced the addition of the Butenhof & Bomster legal team to its growing firm. It said the move significantly enhances the firm’s probate and estate planning capabilities, and expands our services to include elder law and special needs trusts.

Sheehan Phinney Managing Director Dave McGrath said the Butenhof & Bomster team “furthers our commitment to provide our individual and family clients with sophisticated and specialized legal services.

Drummond Woodsum adds special ed law associate

Luke Webster

Luke Webster has joined Drummond Woodsum’s special education practice group. Based in the firm’s Manchester office, he will be providing advice to public schools on a wide range of complex legal issues with an emphasis on special education law.

Webster most recently served as a judge advocate general in the NH Army National Guard and also served as the legal adviser to the Joint Task Force commander responsible for overseeing the National Guard’s support to the state’s response to Covid-19

Baker joins Shaheen & Gordon’s business law group

Shaheen & Gordon has added attorney William C. Baker to its business law group.

Based out of the firm’s Dover office, Baker focuses his practice focuses on guiding small to mid-size businesses through matters related to formation, organization, employment, succession planning and other needs. He also handles matters that need to be settled through litigation.

P

Will Baker

rior to joining Shaheen & Gordon, Baker founded his own firm in Denver, Colo. He is admitted to practice in Colorado, New Hampshire and New York.

Jurors’ names in NH motorcycle crash trial won’t be released

Coos County Superior Court Judge Peter Bornstein has denied The Boston Globe’s request for jurors’ names in the case of a truck driver who was acquitted last year of all counts for the deaths of seven motorcyclists. He ruled that the panel endured harsh criticism from many, including the governor, and feared for their safety.

The Associated Press reported that the Globe sought the names following the August 2022 trial of Volodymyr Zhukovskyy. The jury acquitted him of causing the deaths in a head-on collision in New Hampshire in 2019 that exposed fatal flaws in the process for revoking licenses across states.

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Attorney General John Formella criticized the verdict. Sununu said he shared in the “shock, outrage, and anger that so many have expressed” since the crash.

“The Fallen Seven did not receive justice today, and that is an absolute tragedy,” he said, referring to the victims.

The Globe argued that the list of jurors’ names and addresses is a court document, and therefore, there’s a presumption that it be available to the public.

But a lawyer appointed by Bornstein contacted all of the jurors, and they said they did not want to speak to the Globe or to any other media, citing concerns over their safety and privacy.

One juror “was so concerned for his/her safety that the juror felt the need to carry a pistol for personal protection,” Bornstein wrote. Another shut down their social media accounts.

The Globe has not yet decided whether to appeal, its lawyer said.