Personnel

Jeffrey M. Bernstein is the Firm's President and Managing Director. A magna cum laude graduate of both Brown University and Boston College School of Law, he has broad public policy and private sector experience. Formerly Director of the Massachusetts Legislative Energy Development Caucus and Executive Director of Resources for New England, Inc., Mr. Bernstein's governmental background emphasized financing energy conservation and alternate energy development and environmental issues. Mr. Bernstein's practice concentrates on renewable energy project and sustainable development, technology, corporate and commercial law and regulatory matters. He represents entrepreneurial and/or technology clients of the Firm on complex transactions.  He also represents many municipal entities and non-profit environmental and renewable energy organizations serving as General Counsel to the innovative municipal aggregator, the Cape Light Compact and its new affiliated Cape & Vineyard Electric Cooperative..  Mr. Bernstein is on the board of numerous energy and technology companies and serves as an officer of several, including Scholl Canyon Landfill Gas Corporation, the developer and operator of a nationally recognized landfill gas to energy project in a joint public/private partnership with several California public entities. Mr. Bernstein has been admitted in all State Courts in Massachusetts and Vermont as well as the Federal District Court for Massachusetts and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth and Sixth Circuit and works from the Firm’s Vermont office on a frequent basis. AV® Rated by Martindale-Hubbell.

Erin M. O'Toole is Vice President and senior counsel of the Firm and is resident in the Firm's Mountain States office. Ms. O'Toole is a cum laude graduate of Fairfield University and Suffolk University Law School. Her practice focuses on general business, nonprofit and energy law.  She has assisted in complex financial transactions for technology clients of the Firm.  She functions as outside general counsel for several clients of the firm, regularly advising them on corporate governance practices, operational matters, regulatory compliance, commercial transactions, contract negotiations, acquisitions and sales of businesses and employment matters.  Ms. O’Toole also represents early stage and emerging companies, assisting them with entity formation matters (including corporations and limited liability companies), stockholder agreements, strategic partnerships and other transactional issues.   . She is admitted to practice before the State Courts of Massachusetts and Idaho, as well as the Federal District Court for Massachusetts and the United States Court of Appeals for the First and Sixth Circuits.

Rebecca Zachas is of counsel to the Firm focusing on energy regulatory and policy matters.  Ms. Zachas spent nearly eight years at LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae, L.L.P., in Washington, D.C. and Boston practicing energy and telecommunications law before joining BCK.  She represented electric utilities, power marketers, non-utility generators, telecommunications carriers, and cable companies in administrative proceedings before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Federal Communications Commission, and various state public utility commissions.  She has obtained regulatory approvals for numerous energy transactions, and has counselled clients on state and federal regulatory issues involving electric restructuring, affiliate abuse, rate regulation, pole attachments, mergers and acquisitions.  Ms. Zachas is a magna cum laude graduate of Syracuse University and a cum laude graduate of Catholic University Law School.  She is admitted to practice in Massachusetts, New Hampshire (inactive), the District of Columbia (inactive), and Maryland (inactive).

Jo Ann Bodemer is a senior associate of the Firm focusing on civil litigation, municipal, land use and insurance issues. Prior to joining the Firm., she was an associate with Sinnreich & Kossakoff LLP, a New York litigation firm concentrating in complex commercial construction matters, as well as real estate disputes and municipal land-use matters. Ms. Bodemer gained experience as a commercial litigation associate for Farrell Fritz, P.C. and as an associate at Mound, Cotton and Wollan, a prominent New York firm specializing in insurance and reinsurance issues. She received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, in 1997 from St. John’s University School of Law, where she served as the Managing Editor of the Law Review. Following her graduation from the State University of New York at Albany in 1984 with a B.A. in psychology, Ms. Bodemer worked for ten years in the insurance industry for a prominent life and health insurance company. Ms. Bodemer is admitted to practice in the state and federal courts of the State of New York and the United States Supreme Court; her application for admission to the state courts of the Commonwealth is in process.

Audrey A. Eidelman is an associate of the Firm focusing on energy and renewable energy issues, corporate, municipal and regulatory matters. Prior to joining the Firm, she was an associate at the Washington, DC office of Kutak Rock LLP, a national firm, practicing in the areas of military base closure, realignment and reuse, federal privatization, federal property acquisition and federal contracts. Ms. Eidelman also served from August 2003 to December 2007 for more than four years as first a senior law clerk and then an associate with the Firm, providing service to the Firm’s corporate clients and assisting the Firm's senior attorneys on energy issues. Ms. Eidelman is a graduate of American University and a cum laude graduate of Suffolk University Law School. She is admitted to practice in Massachusetts and the District of Columbia.

Steven J. Allenby became a Senior Advisor and Strategist to BCK in 2009, bringing thirty years of energy industry experience to the Firm’s clients, particularly in the areas of energy efficiency, renewable energy development and regulatory matters. Mr. Allenby was a Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Operations and Marketing at Central Vermont Public Service Corporation and President of the Central Vermont’s unregulated energy subsidiary. He has also held Senior Vice President and Executive Vice President positions at United Financial of Illinois and Catalyst Financial Group, respectively. Mr. Allenby has focused much of his career on the design, financing and implementation of energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and programs within utilities, ESCOs and the federal government. He is a cum laude graduate of J.D. Vermont Law School with a BA magna cum laude from Heidelberg College. Mr. Allenby is a member of the Vermont Bar, presently on inactive status.

Dawn R. Book is the Firm's office manager and finance and technology director. Ms. Book is responsible for the management of the Firm's computerized time and billing programs, as well as serving as the Firm's Network Administrator. She seamlessly coordinates communications between the Firm's main office and the two satellite offices and allows the Firm to cost-efficiently and productively represent a myriad of clients.

Stacy Gilden joined the Firm’s Mountain States office as a corporate paralegal and technology assistant. Her extensive computer and technology background will augment the firm’s research capability, enhance communication online, and provide assistance to the firm’s corporate clients and attorneys on renewable energy projects. Ms. Gilden is a graduate of Boise State University with a BA in Communication. She has worked in the computer software industry as a trainer and consultant with large corporate groups for over 10 years.

Everett W. Tatelbaum is the Firm’s Legal Assistant focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy projects. In addition, he acts as a general researcher supporting the Firm’s attorneys on regulatory and project development matters. Since graduating from Wesleyan University in 2006 with a B.A. in Modern World History, Mr. Tatelbaum has gained experience and achieved success in several unique roles. These include a term of community service as a member of AmeriCorps, a year as a high school teacher, and nearly a year studying renewable energy applications and the practice of sustainable agriculture in Europe.