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.  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 a 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.

Barbara Kessner Landau is of counsel to the Firm. She concentrates in environmental and real estate law, especially transactions involving brownfields. Ms. Landau's public sector background combined with her real estate development experience gives her a unique perspective to assist clients with brownfields transactions, regulatory compliance, permitting and environmental risk mitigation. Prior to joining the Firm, Ms. Landau was General Counsel to a private real estate development company engaged in redevelopment of brownfields properties. As the former Brownfields Coordinator at the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Ms. Landau was instrumental in drafting and implementing the 1998 Massachusetts Brownfields Act.  Ms. Landau also previously served as Assistant General Counsel to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Economic Affairs, an environmental law associate in private law practice, a housing and land use analyst at Abt Associates, Inc. and worked at the Cambridge Housing Authority on public housing redevelopment. Ms. Landau is a member of the Winchester Conservation Commission, has been a frequent speaker at national and local conferences and published several articles on brownfields redevelopment. Ms. Landau graduated from Oberlin College, received her M.A. in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University and her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law. For more information on the Firm's Brownfields Practice, visit the Brownfields Page.

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).

Suzy Hong is an associate with the Firm. Ms. Hong provides services to the Firm's corporate clients and assists the Firm's senior attorneys on energy issues. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Hong served as a Legal Counsel in the Legal Division of the California Public Utilities Commission. There, she advised Commission staff and decision-makers on Commission proceedings involving such issues as the California Solar Initiative and greenhouse gas emissions. Additionally, Ms. Hong externed for the Honorable John T. Noonan of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Ms. Hong is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles and obtained her law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She is admitted to practice in the state of California and is seeking admission to Massachusetts in February 2008.

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.