Meet the Team

Sandra Guay is an expert on land use and zoning laws. Sandy works with developers, builders, engineers, and other experts to guide her clients' projects from concept, to paper, to permit, and ultimately to reality. Sandy also represents homeowners and others in the administrative permitting process and as an experienced appellate advocate. In addition to her law practice, Sandy teaches two land use planning courses at the University of Southern Maine. From the local convenience store to a kelp farm off the coast of Maine, you can see Sandy's work where individuals and businesses are finding new, innovative, and sustainable uses for the land and sea.

Most lawyers solve legal problems. Ben solves business problems. He spent the first part of his career honing his leadership and financial management skills. He spent the next decade as a litigator perfecting an ability to translate abstract legal concepts into concrete tools for his clients. Ben is just as sharp reading a P&L as he is reading an opponent's legal brief. He believes there is no border between business challenges and legal challenges. You cannot effectively solve one without considering the other.

If we seem unusually organized and on top of things, it is because of Lucy. When Lucy is not navigating court dockets, public registries, or complex zoning ordinances with her usual alacrity, she is overseeing the operations of a fast-growing and complex professional services practice. Her many years as a paralegal have refined her abilities as an experienced researcher and problem solver. However, Lucy’s ultimate skill is giving us the tools we need to shine for our clients, and because of her work, shine we do!

Permanent solutions require transparency, trust, and communication between all the stakeholders. From Standing Rock to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, Hannah has studied and witnessed intense environmental and humanitarian conflicts in Europe, Latin America, and the United States. She wove these experiences into her master’s study in environmental law and policy at Vermont Law School. Hannah specializes in mediation, negotiation, and adaptive management strategies geared toward permanent and dynamic solutions to disputes in the US and abroad.

They may not seem exciting to some, but environmental, zoning, and land use regulations form the very fabric of our society.  Navigating the complexities of these regulations is essential to development, whether on land or in the water.  Mike’s extensive regulatory and consulting experience enables him to assist clients with project realization while fulfilling regulatory obligations to ensure sustainability for future generations.  Sustainable development requires a delicate balance. With the right tools and the right experience, this balance can be achieved. 

To create a sustainable future, we must adapt to the changing environment. Mike’s approach embraces solutions for clients that break through the traditional silos of law, permitting, and engineering. Prior to attending law school, Mike developed a detailed understanding of land use and development as a project manager and land use planner for a respected engineering and surveying firm. His blend of expertise in statutory interpretation, municipal and state permitting, and on the ground experience allow him to think beyond the law to solve complex land use, zoning and environmental issues.

Reducing complex legal and technical issues into simple terms is essential to effective advocacy: in counseling clients, presenting an application to a board, trying a case before a judge or jury, arguing an appeal, or persuading an opponent to embrace your position. Keith is adept at appearing before government agencies and courts, with a robust litigation, trial practice, and appellate background and a track record of results. He is passionate about fairness and transparency in government, research and evidence-based decision making, and delivering practical, efficient solutions for clients. Keith also values contributions to the field and has published articles on subjects ranging from coastal land use, to renewable energy, to the intersection between Maine’s administrative adjudication procedure and real estate law.

Jane comes to Archipelago with deep experience in video production, followed by management roles in small business and higher education. If it seems like Jane is busy, it is because she is building the internal operations of our growing company while at the same time producing and editing stories about resilient people living and working in a rapidly changing environment and economy. You will soon be able to see Jane's work on this and other websites as we feature the stories about our clients and the work they do.

When you love a place, you invest in it. You nurture it. You pass that love onto others, especially your children. If that place is ever threatened, you fight like hell to protect it. Tom is a Maine boy. That sense of place flows through him like a river. The law connects Tom with the things he is passionate about: the ocean, the islands, and the mountains. When a Maine Governor needed a chief legal counsel, Tom was there. When Saddleback Mountain ski area needed to be revived, Tom threw himself into the project. Tom helped create a public-private partnership that redeveloped the mountain and reestablished a critical economic engine in the Western Maine mountains. After such accomplishments, others might look to catch their breath but not Tom, he just moves on to the next seemingly impossible task. That’s what guys like Tom do: take on monumental problems, solve them, and then look for what’s next. He won’t brag about it. He didn’t even write this bio. That’s our Tom. Husband, father, skier, musician, lawyer, Mainer.

They say the best lawyers understand something more about the world in which we live, and that good lawyering requires perspective above all else. Twain has always been in love with the ocean. After he graduated from college he wrote about seamanship and navigation for a magazine and then became its managing editor. He cultivated experiences at sea as well; he and a partner traveled the US to find and return a traditional schooner back to Maine to start Portland’s first windjammer business in over 100 years. It was only then that Twain went to law school and began his practice, eventually becoming a Proctor in Admiralty - a distinguished designation for those who specialize in maritime law. While he was building his practice, he and his wife were building their family on Peaks Island. With thousands of miles under his keel and numerous federal trials as first chair, Twain has a story or two to tell. You can find a few at the library or your local bookstore in the maritime adventure sections. But it is his clients who really benefit from his experience. Because whether you’re in a courtroom, a boardroom, or out in the Gulf of Maine, the more you have seen, the less there is that can surprise you. He delivers maritime legal services built on real-world, practical experience.

Richard comes to Archipelago as more than a lawyer; he is a brewer, chemical engineer, carpenter, farmer, and pea-picking champion from northern Maine. Growing up in a small rural town, Richard developed a deep sense of community that he brings to his legal practice. Often, when we talk about the law—land use, environmental, maritime—it is theoretical and detached from the people it is meant to serve. Richard grounds the theoretical in the practical and seeks common sense solutions that are tailored to meet his clients’ needs. Richard combines his engineering background with his legal and policy knowledge to help clients from the inception of their project, through the often complicated regulatory compliance landscape, and right up to the highest level of appeal.

Scientists believe sharks use an electrosensory system called the ampullae of Lorenzini to navigate our world’s oceans. You might say sharks are born knowing the direction they need to go. People can be that way, too. That’s how Grayson, born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, found her way to the coast of Maine and never looked back. That’s how a college student, intent on studying sharks, broadened her studies to include the functioning of entire ecosystems and the delicate balance threatened by climate change. It was that same sense of direction and constant movement that propelled Grayson into law school where she continued studying and writing about the ocean, the arctic, and the environment that connects all of us. And it is that same drive that she brings to Archipelago – a constant compass that points her and her clients only one way: forward.

Much akin to life in the intertidal ecosystems that define Maine's coastline, our towns and cities require resilience to survive in the unique challenges of an ever-changing environment. Born and raised in Connecticut, Elias grew up observing and learning from the way society interacts with coastal land on the Long Island Sound. This fascination led him to study marine policy in college, leading him on a path of reading case law, examining flood maps, and memorizing maritime boundaries. After college, Elias sharpened his legal support skills at a notable Portland law firm before joining us. An avid angler, explorer, and general patron of the great outdoors, Elias brings genuine passion to our team. His determination, natural curiosity, and will to harmonize people and planet serve as valuable traits at Archipelago.