<p>Nicole counsels and represents businesses ranging from large, international employers to small, local entrepreneurs on all employment and labor matters, including as they arise in a unionized or non-unionized workforce, wage payment and overtime issues, discrimination (whether based on sex, age, disability, religion etc.) and retaliation complaints, covenants not to compete and non-solicitation agreements, executive compensation agreements, severance and separation agreements, family and medical leave issues, disability and accommodation issues, and numerous other contract, business, and personnel matters. She also serves as counsel for high level, executive employees related to covenants not to compete, non-solicitation and confidentiality agreements, and executive compensation matters as they arise before, during, and after the separation of employment.
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Recently, Nicole provided ongoing strategic advice and representation over an extended period of time to a group seeking to purchase Maine’s newspapers and online services including the Portland Press Herald, the Morning Sentinel and Kennebec Journal. The deal involved complicated pre-purchase negotiations with numerous unions representing hundreds of employees, and required significant economic concessions by the unions to bring about the purchase. With Nicole’s assistance, MaineToday Media, Inc. entered into new collective bargaining agreements with the unions and completed its purchase of the print and on-line media entities in June of 2009. Nicole continues to counsel and represent MaineToday Media, Inc. with its combined union and non-union workforce of 400+ employees.
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Products Liability Practice
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Nicole complements her employment law practice with a concentration on complex products liability cases. She regularly represents people who have been killed or catastrophically injured due to dangerous and defective products including but not limited to heavy machinery, material handling equipment, farm equipment, mechanical, electrical and/or gas-powered products. The complicated issues of law, combined with Nicole’s compassionate and aggressive representation and counsel, puts Nicole at her best both in and outside of the courtroom for the benefit of her clients.
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Recently, Nicole represented Claire Brown, who lost her husband Tom to an accident in the workplace when the forklift he was operating travelled underneath a horizontal rack resulting in Tom becoming crushed and asphyxiated. Over the course of three years, Nicole and partner Terry Garmey tried the case to a verdict of $4.2 million for her client, and successfully argued the case on two levels of appeal – one before the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals and one before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Nicole’s representation created precedent-setting law in Maine concerning a manufacturer’s “post-sale” duty to warn of dangerous and defective products sold to Maine consumers, including products are sold to Maine employers and operated by their employees in the workplace.
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Where Nicole’s clients suffer death or injury on products used in the workplace, such as material handling equipment, the employers have worked alongside Nicole to assist in a proper recovery for their employee and to ensure that the products which they purchased are safe and properly guarded. Additionally, as was the case in Brown v. Crown, when a verdict is rendered in favor of Nicole’s client – the injured or deceased employee - the employer may obtain substantial reimbursement of its workers’ compensation payments made to the employee or his/her beneficiary due to the injury or death. Nicole’s concentration in employment law assists her with having productive discussions with the employer regarding a product-related injury or death in the workplace, which is a benefit to her client and the employer who is not at fault.
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Professional/Personal
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Nicole is active with the Saco/Biddeford Chamber of Commerce, a Board Member of the Sebago Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, a member of business-to-business groups, and a member of Echelon Circles, an exclusive organization for top-earning woman owned-businesses in Maine. Nicole and her husband Dave are happily raising three children in Windham, Maine and keeping busy attending school and sporting events.