Our Firm

WHO WE ARE

Experienced lawyers. Creative thinkers. Community leaders. We’re Sheehan Phinney, a premier law firm serving New England and beyond in traditional and emerging areas of law. Need a firm adept at unraveling complexity? We forge pathways to legal solutions where others see impasses, understanding and overcoming your unique challenges with precise legal guidance.

Our Practice

At Sheehan, we recognize that there is no “one size fits all” approach to providing quality legal services. We work closely with our clients to fully understand your individual business objectives and priorities, so we can meet your needs with smartly tailored solutions.

Clients choose Sheehan for our depth of experience and the longstanding and trusted relationships we’ve cultivated within the business community. With 5 offices located throughout New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts, as well as leading technology capabilities, we are strategically positioned to serve you, wherever you are located.

We’re also a proud member of Lex Mundi, the world’s leading association of independent law firms and an esteemed mark of excellence for legal services within the international community.

Our Past

In 1937, renowned trial lawyer John J. “Jack” Sheehan partnered with young FBI attorney William L. Phinney to fulfill their vision of a new law firm in Manchester, New Hampshire. Even as both men saw active duty in World War II, the firm continued to serve clients during the war years. After the war, two more partners joined – Perkins Bass, a military intelligence officer and former law clerk, and another young attorney named William S. Green. Together, the work of these four founding partners established a sterling reputation for Sheehan Phinney in the region. In 1957, prominent attorney Kimon Zachos arrived and helped to further enhance the firm’s standing in the Bar and community.

During this period, one of the firm’s great hallmarks was established – a commitment to community public service and making a difference in the communities where we live and work.

80+ years later, Sheehan Phinney has grown steadily both in size and reputation, attracting national and international clients as well as becoming the first New Hampshire law firm to open an office in downtown Boston. We’re also proud to have established one of the largest lobbying groups in New Hampshire, the Sheehan Phinney Capitol Group.

Our Future

As the business world evolves – as new areas of legal need arise from new industries and

ever-changing laws and regulations – Sheehan Phinney will always be ready to help your business keep pace. We continue to expand our talented team of attorneys, strengthening our ongoing commitment to entrepreneurial vision and growth across the many industry sectors we serve – affordable housing, healthcare, technology, start-up, manufacturing, automotive, professional services, hospitality, non-profit and so many more. Contact us to discuss your needs for today and tomorrow.

Pro bono / community involvement / charitable giving

Community and people are the heart and soul of Sheehan Phinney. Our attorneys and staff donate countless hours and enthusiastically serve as dedicated pro bono advocates and advisors, valued volunteers, and members of community boards.

SEE OUR COMMUNITY GIVEBACK

The firm proudly supports civil legal aid in New Hampshire, as one of the state’s leading financial supporters of the NH Campaign for Legal Services, and partner with the state’s civil legal aid firms in initiatives ranging from NH Legal Assistance’s Crisis Response Fellowship Attorneys Program (through which a Sheehan Phinney attorney worked as part of the NHLA team on unemployment matters during the height of the COVID pandemic) and 603 Legal Aid’s Eviction Prevention Clinics (a weekly session in Concord District Court where pro bono attorneys, including those from Sheehan Phinney, provide on-the-spot advice and counsel to tenants scheduled for eviction hearings that day).

Hands-on efforts in communities throughout New Hampshire and the Greater Boston area include: organizing and sorting clothing, footwear, school supplies and other necessary items for children at a local non-profit, Cradles to Crayons, whose belief that ‘quality equals dignity’ has helped kids thrive at home and in school. In Manchester, Sheehan employees support hunger relief and food assistance by volunteering for dinner service at Families In Transition’s local Adult Emergency Shelter.

Our attorneys answered the call to help the New Hampshire Judiciary and Bar address the critical shortage of public defenders in the state. Sheehan’s effort was led in 2022 by now-retired attorney Michael Ramsdell, who delayed his planned retirement to represent indigent defendants whose cases had been languishing. Other firm attorneys have stepped up to accept continuing referrals from the state’s Judicial Council, in its effort to ensure that the state meets its constitutional obligation to provide a no-cost defense to individuals charged with certain crimes.

Enthusiastic and ongoing support of non-profits throughout the region. Not only have our attorneys and team members served as Board members and officers for many of the non-profit organizations in New Hampshire and surrounding areas, their support of those groups goes much further. This commitment includes a team member who has trained for and competed alongside her Special Olympics partner in three Unified Triathlons; the firm participating in the “CEO Soak,” a dunk tank event held to raise funds to fight ALS; and a dedicated cohort of brave firm members who annually dive into the frigid Atlantic Ocean in February to raise money for Special Olympics’ Penguin Plunge fundraiser.

> Extensive pro bono representation of a wide variety of clients. Examples include:

Sheehan Phinney lawyers have partnered with many groups providing immigration-related pro bono representation to clients, including KIND, PAIR Project, ACLU of New Hampshire, American Immigration Lawyers Association, University of Maine Law School’s Refugee and Human Rights Clinic, and NH Legal Assistance. Through that extremely fulfilling work, the firm has had the opportunity to work with many asylum-seekers and other immigration clients seeking varied relief within the immigration system. Examples include a young Guatemalan who escaped gang violence and abuse in his native country and, with the firm’s assistance, received work authorization and a green card allowing him to remain in the country; an asylum-seeker fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, for whom the firm successfully argued to the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire and the First Circuit Court of Appeals that the placing of the burden of proof in a bond hearing on the immigrant rather than the government was unconstitutional; and a kidnapping and torture victim from an African nation, in connection with her asylum application.

Members of the firm’s Intellectual Property Group have provided representation concerning patents, trademarks, and other IP needs to non-profit organizations working on causes as varied as climate control mitigation in the developing world, assistance to those threatened by natural hazards, and literacy and reading support.

Sheehan Phinney attorneys have provided pro bono representation to litigants who otherwise would be representing themselves in matters before courts and tribunals including the New Hampshire Supreme Court, the U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire, and the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers, on matters ranging from divorce issues to alleged civil rights violations to accusations of unethical conduct.

The Sheehan Phinney Non-Profit, Tax, Employment, and Corporate Groups have worked with small charitable organizations, when appropriate, to provide pro bono support to them in support of their important and varied missions.

Sheehan Phinney attorneys volunteer their time to mediate disputes pending at the New Hampshire Commission for Human Rights, frequently between self-represented individuals and their former employers, assisting the parties to find a mutually-agreeable resolution, without the need for expensive and protracted litigation.

The firm’s attorneys have, for many years, taught a class on landlord-tenant law basics, tenants’ rights, and the eviction process to current and prospective local landlords to help NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire continue its mission to support sustainable, affordable, quality housing in our community.

> Through the William S. Green and the Sheehan Phinney Charitable Funds, the firm donates to a variety of local, national, and international charitable causes.