OFFICERS

PRESIDENT

Eleanor Wm. Dahar graduated from Boston College Law School in 1987 and was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1988.  She practices with the law firm of Victor W. Dahar, P.A. in Manchester.  She has served as Vice-President and Secretary of the NHBA and has served a three-year term as an at-large member of the Board of Governors.  Dahar is also a member of the NH Bar Foundation Board of Directors, a member of the Massachusetts Bar and the American Bar Associations and the American Bankruptcy Institute.

PRESIDENT-ELECT

Ellen L. Arnold currently serves as Associate General Counsel for Dartmouth College. Her practice focuses on the areas of land use planning and zoning, environmental law, construction contracting, disability law, and student affairs. Prior to joining Dartmouth College in 2001, Arnold was a litigation partner at McLane, Graf Raulerson, & Middleton, P.A. where her practice included representation of public and private clients in land use, environmental, and government regulatory matters. She has also served as special counsel to Governor Judd Gregg and as legal counsel for the New Hampshire State Senate. Arnold is the Special Justice of the Henniker District Court and a Grafton County Family Division Justice. She received her B.A. degree in government from Skidmore College and her J.D. from Franklin Pierce Law Center. She has served on the Board of the New Hampshire Women ‘s Bar Association and is a current member of the Board of the New Hampshire Bar Foundation, co-chair of the New Hampshire Bar Association Work-Life Creed Committee and a member of the New Hampshire Supreme Court’s Commission on the Status of the Legal Profession.

VICE-PRESIDENT

James J. Tenn, Jr. received his J.D. from The Catholic University of America. He was admitted to NH Bar in 1991 and admitted to Massachusetts Bar in 1992. He is a partner in Tenn and Tenn PA of Manchester. His activities within the NH Bar include: Member, Pro Bono Advisory Board; former chair, New Lawyers Committee; member of Member Services Work Group; past member of the Ethics Committee. Participant in Lawyer in Every School and referral marathons for Pro Bono DOVE Program, prior faculty member for DOVE training. Coach for entrant in the NHBA Mock Trial competition. Host and volunteer for LawLine. He is also a member of the Manchester Bar Association, the New Hampshire Trial Lawyers Association, the New Hampshire Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, the American Bar Association and the Massachusetts Bar Association.

TREASURER

Rob Howard graduated from Boston University with a J.D. in 1969 and was admitted to the NH Bar in 1969; he has been the NHBA treasurer since 1993. He is also a member of the NHBA Finance Committee and the Technology Task Force; he has been a member of various NHBA sections and on faculty panels of a number of CLE's. Rob is a former Merrimack County governor and governor-at-large on the NHBA Board of Governors. He served nine years as a part-time district court judge and was the recipient of NHBA President's Award for Outstanding Professionalism in 1996. He co-teaches the Law Practice Management session of the required Practical Skills course offered semi-annually to new admittees.

SECRETARY

Gretchen Witt, a graduate of Boston University School of Law, joined the NH Bar in 1987. Since 1991, she has been Chief of the Civil Division of the US Attorney's Office, New Hampshire (with the exception of six months as the court-appointed US Attorney for the District of NH pending a presidential appointment to the post.) Witt is also a member of the US Attorney General's Advisory Committee and chair of the Civil Chiefs' Working Group. She first joined the Department of Justice in 192 and moved to NH in 1986. She is a member of numerous Bar and court committees.

IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT

Richard B. McNamara practices complex civil litigation, general business litigation, defense of legal malpractice claims and complex personal injury actions, both in New Hampshire and nationally. He has been with the firm of Wiggin & Nourie in Manchester since 1979.

He also has substantial experience with jury trials in state and federal courts on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants and has defended criminal cases in state and federal courts; he has tried over 60 civil jury trials to verdict and successfully defended a capital murder case, State v. William Gagne, at the request of the New Hampshire Superior Court.

McNamara received his JD degree from Boston College Law School  in 1975 and was admitted to the NH Bar in that same year. He is also admitted to practice in Massachusetts and in several federal trial and appellate courts.

McNamara began his career in the Office of the NH Attorney General and has been an active member of the NHBA holding many offices and serving on many committees. He has also published a number of books and authored numerous articles.

GOVERNORS-AT-LARGE
(Year indicates end of current term.  Year ends in June)

GOVERNOR-AT-LARGE

A graduate of Franklin Pierce Law Center, Marilyn McNamara joined the NH Bar in 1977. She remained at the school for a year following graduation to assist in the launching of what was then the Family and Housing Law Clinic. She was in private practice in Lebanon from 1978 until a move to southern New Hampshire led to her 2001 decision to leave private practice and become the current executive director of the Legal Advice and Referral Center (LARC).

In the past, she has served on the Judicial Council and on Gov. Jeanne Shaheen’s Judicial Selection Commission. She also has served on NH Bar committees including Continuing Legal Education, Professionalism and the Delivery of Legal Services. She served on the NHBA Pro Bono Governing Board for 10 years, first as a member and then as chair, and she was an active Pro Bono lawyer while in private practice.

She is an adjunct faculty member at Pierce Law Center, where she has recently collaborated with the Daniel Webster Scholar program to bring law students to LARC to acquire interview and practice skills and provide telephone advocacy services to low-income clients. She has served on various New Hampshire commissions concerning the provision of legal services to low-income clients.

GOVERNOR-AT-LARGE

Lawrence A. Vogelman is a director of the firm Nixon, Raiche, Manning, Vogelman & Leach, PA, in Manchester, NH where he concentrates his practice in criminal defense, civil rights, personal injury law, employment law and professional malpractice.  He earned his B.A. from Brooklyn College of the City University of New York in 1970 and his J.D. from Brooklyn Law School in 1973.  Larry is legal director of the NH Civil Liberties Union; a founding member and former Board of Directors member of the New York State Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; is on the Board of Bar Examiners; and the Federal Court Advisory Committee.  He is on the Board of Governors of the New Hampshire Bar Association and is past president of the Federal Practice Section.  Larry is also a member of the Bar’s Ethics Committee and Dispute Resolution Committee.  For 15 years, Larry was a professor at Cardozo Law School and he has been teaching trial practice to lawyers and law students since 1974.

GOVERNOR-AT-LARGE

Lisa Wellman-Ally graduated with a J.D. degree from Washington & Lee School of Law and was admitted to the bar in NH 2002, in VT in 2003 and to NY Bar in 1990. She is a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, New Hampshire Trial Lawyers Association, New Hampshire Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Vermont Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the American Bar Association.Wellman-Ally is in private practice at Wellman-Ally Law PLLC, Claremont, NH.

Before relocating to New Hampshire, she practiced law in New York City for 12 years. She previously served a two-year term on the Board of Governors representing Sullivan County.

GOVERNOR-AT-LARGE

A graduate of the University of Maine School of Law (J.D. degree, 1971) John Andrews has been a NH Bar member since 1991. He is executive director, Local Government Center, Concord, a member of the NHBA Finance Committee, a former member of the Legislative Committee and a member of the New Hampshire Bar Foundation Board of Directors, the NHBA Dispute Resolution and Ethics committees; Andrews is a current member of the board of directors of the National League of Cities and the International City Management Association.

GOVERNOR-AT-LARGE

Alexander Walker is a shareholder at Devine, Millimet & Branch where he chairs the firm's Commercial Litigation Group and serves on the firm's board of directors. He received is J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law and has been a member of the NHBA since 1992. Attorney Walker also has a B.A. in English and Political Science, with honors, from the University of Massachusetts. He served for three years in the US Marine Corps.

COUNTY GOVERNORS
(2-year terms)

BELKNAP COUNTY GOVERNOR

Dorcas J. Gordon graduated with a BA in English from Boston College in 1998. She earned her JD degree at the University of Connecticut School of Law, graduating in 2003 and was admitted to New Hampshire Bar and U.S. District Court for District of New Hampshire that same year.  She is an Associate at Wescott, Millham & Dyer, LLP, Laconia, NH.  Atty. Gordon serves on the Town of Bristol Budget Committee; she is also a Commissioner on the Town of Bristol Historic District Commission and serves as Trustee of the Trust Funds for the Town of Bristol. In addition, she serves on Chief Justice Broderick’s Commission on the Status of the Legal Profession.

CARROL COUNTY GOVERNOR

Donald Smith received his law degree from Boston University. He was admitted to the NH Bar in 1998. He is a partner in the firm of Helme Cole & Smith PC, in Carroll County.

CHESHIRE COUNTY GOVERNOR

Attorney Maria Gavin, although born in Massachusetts, grew up in Mason, New Hampshire. Her education includes an M.B.A. from the University of Massachusetts-Boston and a J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law. In 2005, immediately after law school, she joined the Keene law firm of Bradley, Burnett, Kinyon, Fernald & Green, which has now merged with another Keene firm to become Bradley & Faulkner, P.C.

As Cheshire County governor, she hopes to bring the concerns and comments of the Cheshire County Bar to the Board and to work on issues that face all lawyers in New Hampshire.

COOS COUNTY GOVERNOR

David Carlson graduated from the University of Maine in 1980 and from Franklin Pierce Law Center (J.D.) in 1983. He began in private practice in the Law Office of Thomas J. Cote, and then joined the firm of Bergeron, Hanson & Bornstein in 1991. He became a partner in 1996 and remained there until his appointment in 2001 as Clerk of the Coos County Superior Court.

A member of the NH Bar since 1983, Carlson also is a member of the Coos County Bar Association, and president and treasurer since 2001.

GRAFTON COUNTY GOVERNOR

A member of the NH Bar for 20 years, Attorney Quentin Blaine began his law career in the law office of Peter Marsh in Concord in 1986. He moved to Plymouth in 1989 where he became a partner with William Hopkins, prior to starting a solo practice there in 1995. In 2001, he accepted an appointment as Clerk of Concord District Court. On leaving the court system, he practiced a short while with Hebert & Uchida in Concord before deciding to end his commute and re-open a solo practice in Plymouth, where he lives.

As Grafton County governor, this is Blaine's first opportunity to participate in the governance of the Bar Association and he brings the perspective of having worked in the court system and of having practiced law in small firms and as a solo practitioner.

HILLSBOROUGH-NORTH COUNTY GOVERNOR

Jennifer L. Parent is a director in the litigation department at McLane, Graf, Raulerson & Middleton, in Manchester. She focuses her practice in the areas of commercial litigation, employment litigation, and land use litigation and is a member of the firm’s Business Law, Employment Law, Land Use, and School Law Practice Groups. Parent is a cum laude graduate of Boston College and summa cum laude graduate of Suffolk University Law School.  She is also the 2003 recipient of the Bar Foundation’s Robert E. Kirby Award. A past President of the New Hampshire Women’s Bar Association, Parent is also a member of the Manchester Bar Association, the Nashua Bar Association, and the New Hampshire Trial Lawyers’ Association. In addition, she is a member of the American Bar Association, where she is active in the Young Lawyer Division.

HILLSBOROUGH-SOUTH COUNTY GOVERNOR

Kevin P. Rauseo is a graduate of Salem State College and Suffolk University. He was admitted to the Massachusetts Bar in 1996 and the NH Bar in 1997. He joined Hamblett & Kerrigan in 1999 and concentrates his practice in the areas of civil litigation, medical malpractice, personal injury, insurance defense and family law. Attorney Rauseo was a member of the Suffolk University Law Review and authored several articles including "Probationers Who Delay Their Own Revocation Hearing May Not Complain of Violations of the Ten Day Bail Period". He is a member of the Haverhill, Massachusetts, New Hampshire (Board of Governors 2004- ) and American Bar Associations, the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and the New Hampshire Trial Lawyers Association.

MERRIMACK COUNTY GOVERNOR

Attorney Kenneth Barnes, of the Upton & Hatfield law firm in Concord, concentrates his practice in civil litigation and employment law. He was admitted to the New Hampshire Bar in 1992, and had been admitted to the New York Bar in 1977 after obtaining an L.L.M. degree from Georgetown University Law Center and a J.D. from Yale Law School in 1976. 

He has been active in the New Hampshire Bar Association for a number of years. He currently chairs the Federal Practice Section. He recently chaired the Professionalism Committee, and has been a member of the Ethics, Legislation, and Cooperation with the Courts committees. He recently served on the NH Supreme Court's Citizens Commission on the State Courts.

Before joining Upton & Hatfield, he was litigation director for New Hampshire Legal Assistance, and was a trial attorney for seven years for the United States Department of Justice. He served clerkships for the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals under the late Judge Hugh Bownes, and for the New Hampshire Supreme Court.

(Barnes was appointed to the Board of Governors in June 2007 to fill the unexpired term of Andrew Mierins, who resigned his seat when he began working for a law firm not located in Merrimack County.)

ROCKINGHAM COUNTY GOVERNOR

Bob Mittelholzer of Mittelholzer & Dibble, PLLC is a fellow of the New Hampshire Bar Foundation. Bob has served on a number of committees for the New Hampshire Bar Association over the years, including the Fee Dispute Resolution Committee and the Lawyer to Lawyer Dispute Resolution Committee. He has also been a Strafford County representative to the Board of Governors. A graduate of Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire, Bob received his Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the College of the Holy Cross and a Master's Degree from New York University. He is admitted to the bars of Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

STRAFFORD COUNTY GOVERNOR

Timothy M. Harrington is a graduate of Franklin Pierce Law Center and was admitted to the NH Bar in 1994.

SULLIVAN COUNTY GOVERNOR

David N. Foley is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire with a BA in 1982 and an MAT in 1986.  He received his JD degree from Franklin Pierce Law Center in 1991 and became a NH Bar member that same year.  His experience includes: New Hampshire Public Defender, 1992-1996; solo practitioner, 1996-1997; Robert Howard Law Office, 1997-2002. Since 2002, he has been with State of NH, DHHS-DCYF, Claremont.

DELEGATES TO THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION HOUSE OF DELEGATES

ASSOCIATION DELEGATE

Russell F. Hilliard is an attorney with Upton & Hatfield, LLP in Portsmouth, where he focuses his practice in litigation, commercial law and insurance law. Russ earned his B.S. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1973, his J.D. from Cornell University Law School in 1976 and his LL.M. in taxation in 1985 from Boston University School of Law. He is an American College of Trial Lawyers Fellow and a member of the Merrimack County and American Bar Associations. He is a member and past-chair of the Committee on Professionalism and a member of the Outreach Task Force. Russ is a past President of the NHBA Board of Governors, and is the current NHBA CLE Committee Chair. As Association Delegate, Hilliard represents the New Hampshire Bar Association in the House of Delegates. 

 STATE DELEGATE

L. Jonathan Ross is an attorney with Wiggin & Nourie, P.A. in Manchester, concentrating in complex divorce and domestic relations litigation. A past president of the New Hampshire Bar Association, he has held national leadership positions in the area of working to increasing opportunities for low-income individuals to access the legal system.  Ross was recently appointed to serve on the ABA Standing Committee on Membership for a three-year term. He is also the vice-chair of an ABA House of Delegates Committee to Review the Impact of Resolutions passed by the House. A graduate of Georgetown University (J.D.) and Harvard University (LL.M.), Ross has been a member of the NH Bar since 1968. As State Delegate, Ross represents all of the ABA members who practice or live in New Hampshire.