George Dana Bisbee
Shareholder

Biography

Dana Bisbee is the head of the firm's Environmental Practice Group, and also a member of the Land Use, Energy and Regulatory Affairs Practice Groups. He focuses his practice on environmental and land use law and government relations. On environmental matters, he provides advice and counseling on state, federal, and local permitting issues, enforcement, site remediation and transactional matters. His practice involves extensive negotiations with state and federal regulators, wastewater, wetlands, and hazardous waste permitting and enforcement matters, and administrative proceedings before quasi-judicial boards. His environmental includes representation of residential, commercial and resort developers, energy facilities and discrete permitting matters for municipal clients. His local land use board experience includes submission and site plan approvals and mixed use development. Dana is also a member of Devine Millimet's Government Relations Practice Group, representing clients on environmental issues in the state Legislature and on state agency rulemaking and policy initiatives.

Dana joined Devine Millimet in 2009, after 6 years as a partner in the Environmental and Land Use Practice Group at the Portsmouth, NH office of Pierce Atwood, LLP. Prior to that he served as Assistant Commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (DES), a position he held for seven years. During his last 18 months with the agency he also served as its Acting Commissioner. He worked closely with stakeholders on water law and policy -- especially on large groundwater withdrawals, stream flow protection, and wetlands regulation. Dana was actively engaged in the resolution of complex permitting issues involving large industrial facilities, energy and transportation projects, and commercial development. He championed DES's development of a comprehensive compliance assurance policy, and dealt regularly with difficult enforcement matters.

Dana began his legal career in the New Hampshire Attorney General's office and served in that office for 14 years. In the last five years of his tenure there, he was the state's Deputy Attorney General. Before that, he spent eight years in the Environmental Protection Bureau, including two years as the Bureau Chief.

EDUCATION:

Professional Affiliations

Current:

• Member, New Hampshire Bar Association Environmental and Natural Resources Section
• Environmental Council of the States Alumni Association
• NH Bar Association

Former:

• Vice- chair of the New Hampshire BIA Environmental Affairs Committee
• Chair, NH Bar Association Environmental and Natural Resources Section
• Legislative Ethics Committee
• Governor's Task Force on Rulemaking Reform
• NH Bar Association's Legislation Committee
• NH Bar Association's Committee on Cooperation with the Courts
• Co-Chair, State-EPA Information Management Workgroup

Awards & Honors

• Selected by peers for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® 2012 in the fields of Environmental Law and Land Use & Zoning Law (Copyright 2011 by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, S.C.) since 2005
• Recognized in the 2011 edition of Chambers USA as one of America's leading Environmental Law attorneys (2010-2011)
• Recently recognized as a "New England Super Lawyer" in the practice area of Environmental Law 2010
• Named as Top Attorney for Environmental Law in the State of New Hampshire by Business NH Magazine, 2010.
• 2005 recipient of the New Hampshire Business and Industry Association's "Above and Beyond" award
• New Hampshire Magazine's list of NH's Top Lawyers for environmental law since 2005
• Honored by the 2005 Environmental Council of the States Founders Award for his work on environmental data management

Community Involvement

• Vice-Chair, Leadership NH - Board of Trustees
• 2004 graduate of Leadership NH
• Chair of the Board of Directors of the New Hampshire Lakes Association
• Appointed by then Attorney General Kelly Ayotte in 2007 to the Legislative Commission to Study the Consolidation and Centralization of State Legal Services
• Member of the Governor's Save Our Shipyard Advisory Committee in 2004
• Concord Community Chorus 2001 - present
• Returned Peace Corps Volunteer -- served in Gabon, Central Africa from 1974 to 1977

POLITICAL

• NH Lawyers for Obama (2007-8)

Publications

• Authored The Continuing Expansion of Stormwater Regulation, New Hampshire Business Review, September 10, 2010
• Authored the Ask the Expert - Statute of Limitations on Environmental Penalties, BIA Report, Summer 2009 edition.
• Co-author, with former partner Mark Beliveau, of the New Hampshire Municipal Association's 2003 Law Lecture Series on Water, Wetlands and the Role of Local Government
• Authored Environmental Performance: EPA and States Rely More and More On Measuring Environmental Results and Making Regulatory Innovation Work - Common Sense and Uncommon Initiative for the September/October 2003 and January/February 2004 editions of New England's Environment magazine
• Contributing author of Fundamentals of Water Law in New Hampshire: Protecting Water Rights, Use and Quality (National Business Institute, Inc., June 2004 and June 2005 editions)
• Contributing author of Water Rights, Allocation and Resource Management in Maine and New Hampshire (Lorman Education Services, June 2004)

Bar Admissions

• New Hampshire
• U.S. District Court, District of New Hampshire
• U.S. Supreme Court