courtesy of Perkins Thompson
Among the firm’s archives is a print of an oil pastel rendering of William Linnell. The location of the original piece and the identity of the artist are unknown.
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Sponsored by: Perkins Thompson
Updated: August 2, 2021
2021 Fact Book: Doing Business in Maine
Perkins Thompson
PHOTO courtesy of Perkins Thompson
From left, William Linnell, Porter Thompson, and Elliot Perkins.
A Law Firm with Big Results and a Small-Town Feel
Perkins Thompson, a full-service Maine and northern New England business law firm, has worked for generations with a senior living community called The Park Danforth.
Both are established Portland institutions that have built a relationship bridging past and future. Perkins Thompson is grounded in a deep level of client and community engagement that ensures its attorneys meet the diverse needs of The Park Danforth.
Perkins Thompson understands our role in and contributions to our community and uses that understanding to provide a range of services recognizing the delicate balance needed for a nonprofit organization to achieve growth and maintain financial stability while fulfilling its mission.
— The Park Danforth
Relationships that result from a deep understanding of client and community needs are rooted in a legacy at Perkins Thompson that dates back 150 years, to a time when the Civil War was a recent raw wound and Portland’s Old Port was a beehive of rebuilding after the Great Fire of 1866, when coasting schooners were a familiar site on the waterfront and “copyists” carefully produced masses of legal documents with pen and ink.
Founded in the spirit of entrepreneurialism and collaboration, Perkins Thompson honors its past by carrying that spirit through to its modern-day practice. The firm’s signature level of personalized service can be seen every day, as attorneys continually develop expertise in emerging areas of law and novel issues, in addition to pursuing leadership roles in civic and business boards and organizations, so they can better anticipate and meet client needs.
Perkins Thompson has been an integral part of Sabre Yachts for 25 years, not just providing legal assistance when needed, but also being a valued soundboard in structuring and managing our growth.
— Daniel Zilkha, Sabre Yachts
Origins
But let’s digress to that Great Fire of 1866 and a man nicknamed “Whisker Bill.”
The fire resulted in a period of rebuilding. Among the graceful brick structures that arose on Portland’s Middle Street was the new Canal Bank building, its façade adorned with a carved gilded phoenix.
A member of the Canal Bank family named William Widgery Thomas — called “Whisker Bill” for his ample hirsute adornment — was an attorney with an illustrious career as State legislator and diplomat. In his diplomatic career, Thomas served as vice consul-general at Constantinople and also as consul to Sweden. Later, he helped settle a colony of Swedes in Aroostook County by founding the Town of New Sweden.
In 1872, Thomas partnered with newly minted lawyer, George Emerson Bird. They set up shop in the upper story of the Canal Bank building, with plenty of work coming in through Thomas’s family ties with the bank.
But Thomas was away from the office a fair bit, keeping up with his civic, political, and business affairs. At some point, he left the practice entirely, leaving Bird to find someone else to help with the workload.
Growth
PHOTO by Amanda Robertshaw
The original Bradley Linnell & Jones sign from the 1930s.
Fortunately, just down Middle Street was the industrious, albeit young, William Bradley. The two partnered under the name Bird & Bradley, until Bird was elevated to Justice for the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine. Eventually, Bradley brought in a new partner, William Linnell.
Linnell was not yet 30: it’s said that a long-time staffer left because she wasn’t going to let some young sprat just out of school tell her what to do. But the new partnership suited what had, by that time, become the tradition of a strong business practice coupled with civic and community involvement.
Linnell, who died in 1968, also brought a forward-looking sensibility. A man for the new century, he was a motorman on the Saco & Biddeford Electric Railway before law school. As part of Bradley & Linnell, he served as a link between the firm’s origin in Whisker Bill’s hands to its growth through the twentieth century.
Messrs. Perkins and Thompson
Then came the folks who are on today’s shingle.
Elliot Perkins, the son of a well-known York County lawyer, joined the firm in the latter part of the 1920s. Porter Thompson, a 1929 Harvard Law School graduate, practiced in Boston before moving to Portland to join the firm.
Other partners followed. Franklin Hinckley joined the group in 1943 and drew clients like moths to a flame. Sidney Thaxter arrived after serving submarine duty during World War II. Caspar Cowan came along in 1948, followed by Royden Keddy in 1953. By the late 1960s, the firm’s name was Perkins, Thompson, Hinckley & Keddy, now trimmed to Perkins Thompson.
Changes
Through the decades, Perkins Thompson grew in size, squeezing into all of its available space in the Canal Bank building and a neighboring building. On Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, Perkins Thompson moved to the upper floors of One Canal Plaza, where it continues today.
Also changing were the technologies used to serve clients. In a profession weighted by documents, good penmanship once was an essential skill and copyists bent over their tasks. Countless inventions have relieved that work: manual typewriters and carbon-copy paper, electric typewriters and adding machines. When Xerox invented its copy machine, Perkins Thompson had one lifted in by crane.
In the 1960s, the advent of IBM’s magnetic card typewriter facilitated the production of deeds and mortgages, wills, and corporate by-laws. By the 1980s, IBM typewriters with “optical character readers” simplified editing, and electronic telephone switchboards tracked by computer programs made it possible to operate several lines at once. By 1988, Perkins Thompson was an electronic leader among law firms in northern New England.
Perkins Thompson maintains that cutting edge today with resources like electronic discovery software that analyzes and culls data in a fraction of the time once taken by manual review.
Perkins Thompson has led the community through other forms of change as well. In the early 1990s, recession and widespread bank failures threatened commercial real estate values and the viability of downtowns like Portland’s. Sensing a call to action, philanthropist Elizabeth Noyce partnered with Perkins Thompson attorney Owen Wells to create the Libra Foundation. The nonprofit acquired several prominent downtown Portland properties, convinced L.L. Bean to locate an outlet on Congress Street, and ultimately stabilized Portland’s commercial real estate market. Later, Wells and his colleagues helped redevelop the Pineland Farms property in New Gloucester and went on to establish the Libra Foundation as an instrument of economic development throughout Maine. Today, Perkins Thompson lawyers are proud to provide direct support to the Libra Foundation as its mission continues in Monson and Dover-Foxcroft.
© 2013 Brian Fitzgerald
Perkins Thompson today — grounded in a 150-year legacy.
Today
Perkins Thompson attorneys serve on the executive boards of E2Tech, Habitat for Humanity, and Legal Services for the Elderly; on the boards of trustees of the Maine State Music Theatre, Special Olympics Maine, Maine Audubon, and the Portland Water District; and on Portland’s Planning Board and other area land use boards. The firm’s modest size is intentional, allowing it to handle complex matters without compromising the personal attention clients expect. Discretion is a cornerstone of its success.
Perkins Thompson attorneys represent: banking and lending institutions; real estate developers; manufacturing, petroleum and gas distribution, solar energy, forest products, health care, and retail and wholesale businesses; nonprofits; schools and universities; municipalities; and sewer and water districts, advising businesses and individuals on a wide range of matters, including real estate acquisitions, sales and leases, commercial lending, corporate matters, due diligence, litigation, and employment.
Sebago Brewing Company has worked with Perkins Thompson since our corporate inception in 1997. As young entrepreneurs we relied heavily on the team in many aspects of our business start-up. From incorporating, buy-sell agreements, property leasing and purchases, equipment purchases and acquisitions, Perkins Thompson has had our back. During some of our most challenging times we have leaned on our friends and partners at Perkins Thompson to help us through.
— Sebago Brewing Company
Among recent successes:
- Business area attorneys continue to advise a major Canadian energy corporation in its New England operations, and to provide merger and acquisition counsel to Maine businesses and to Canadian businesses operating in Maine.
- Attorneys in the real estate group advised The Park Danforth on real estate, financing, and permitting in its recent major expansion.
- Over the past 12 years, the firm’s real estate attorneys have represented private entities and nonprofits in conveyances of over 900,000 acres of Northeast timberlands totaling over $400 million.
- Land use & real estate area attorneys continue to provide real estate and land use and environmental permitting advice to Waterstone Properties Group in its development of the Rock Row mixed use project in Westbrook.
- The firm’s tax and business attorneys continue to provide taxation and business advice, along with a growing amount of succession planning advice, to Maine businesses.
- The Software & Startups practice assists clients of varying sizes to bring innovations to market.
- When the U.S. EPA employed its first-in-nation use of authority under the Clean Water Act to direct restoration of an urban-impaired stream – Long Creek – Perkins Thompson assisted affected public and private landowners in the creation of the Long Creek Watershed Management District.
Perkins Thompson’s core character as a forward-looking organization built on client focus and community involvement is reflected throughout its long history, and its current attorneys and leadership are committed to instilling those qualities in the next generation.
Perkins Thompson, P.A.
One Canal Plaza
Portland, ME
Sector: Law
Joseph G. Talbot, Esq., President
Ryan Thebarge, Chief Operating Officer
Founded: 1871
Maine employees: 36
www.perkinsthompson.com
207-774-2635
