A Legal Partner and Trusted Peer for Dentists
If you’re a Maine dentist, we should talk. You and I probably have a lot in common. Like attorneys, you’re a regulated professional with deep technical knowledge and serious responsibilities. You don’t just treat patients, you watch their kids grow up and sponsor youth sports they play. You run a business with employees, tax considerations, and a whirlwind of COVID-related mandates. You want to build and protect your practice as your life’s work, and when it’s time to hang up your handpiece, you want to leave a legacy you can be proud of. To do this, you need a trusted advisor who will be with you for the long run.
What I do…
Provide experienced legal counsel in such areas as:
- Dental practice startups, including formation of professional service corporations and LLC’s
- Mergers and acquisitions through buyout agreements, stock sales, asset transitions, and multigenerational successions
- Associate and staff employment agreements
- HR advice including leaves of absence, family medical leave, and unemployment issues
- Real estate acquisition, sale, and leasing
- Estate planning
- Non-compete agreements
- Commercial lending
- Equipment financing agreements with the big supply companies
Why I do it…
Because dentists and I tend to jive. It all started several years ago, when I helped a young orthodontist and his family relocate to Maine to acquire a practice that had been on the decline. Working with this smart, driven, practitioner changed my outlook and gave me a desire to devote a substantial part of my practice to serving the dental community. First, the client was just a heck of a nice guy. We bonded over lunchtime talks about politics and the state of the business world. Second, I respect him as an expert in his own field who has taught me as much or more as I’ve counseled him. While we all have our role to play, the attorney-client relationship should be a two-way street, don’t you think?
How I do it…
Combine old fashioned country-lawyer values, with cutting edge technology that lets my small firm punch above its weight class and that makes your life easier. Before I hung my shingle in 2016, I worked for a large firm with national accounts, handling multimillion-dollar transactions for brands that are household names. While my team and I like to think we have the experience to handle most business challenges you’ll face, I’m not so arrogant as to think I can be all things to all people. That wouldn’t be taking the long view of our relationship. One promise my dental clients can always expect of me is that if they need a tool that’s not in my toolbox, I will help them to get it.
I maintain close relationships with key business partners who complement what I bring to the table. I treat my responsibility as a solemn promise to ensure you have the right members of your “personal board of directors.” In the dental space, that means close relationships with Androscoggin Bank, for which I am proud to serve as a corporator; and Berry Talbot Royer for accounting services. These folks share my commitment to Maine’s dental community, and we enjoy putting our heads together to think about the profession and its needs. That’s why these firms and I are Preferred Business Partners of the Maine Dental Association. Of course, nothing requires a client of mine to work with one lender or accounting firm over the other, and I am proud to work with a number of other excellent lenders and financial professionals. I also maintain close referral relationships with other lawyers providing litigation, ERISA, and family law services, so that we can pull them in if needed.