Personal Litigation

First Amendment Free Speech
We were retained after trial to appeal a $6.7 million verdict against a client who allegedly violated the New Hampshire Consumer Protection Act by speaking out against referenda in a local town election . We defended the client’s First Amendment Free Speech rights and quarterbacked the legal team that convinced the New Hampshire Supreme Court to reverse the verdict and dismiss the entire case.

First Amendment Religious Liberty and Nonprofit Corporate Litigation
We represented a local Presbyterian church in a dispute over its corporate control when a faction of the church sought to leave the national denomination, and locked out from church property the church members who did not want to leave the denomination. Roy was retained by the segment of the congregation loyal to the national denomination, which then brought claims against the dissident trustees for breach of fiduciary duty and other declaratory relief. The case involved novel issues of First Amendment religious exercise issues. After extensive discovery, the case was tried and settled mid-trial. In settlement, the faithful segment represented by Roy recovered all of its assets, including control of the Church Corporation and restoration of the full value of the church’s liquid assets, minus $50,000, and agreed to transfer to the dissident congregation some raw land and a few items of personal property.

Trust and Estate Trials

We successfully defended a client accused by his brother of forcing his parents to write his brother out of the will.  After a two-week trial, we won the lawsuit and defended the brother, preserving the parent’s intent as expressed in their estate plan. 

Undue Influence

We successfully challenged a will that a younger woman had obtained by enticing an elderly man to fall in love with her and to leave all his assets to her, and leaving his family with no inheritance.  After years of litigation and a probate court trial, the judge threw out the will and denied the younger woman’s claim to inheritance through the will

Employment Discrimination

We protected our client’s rights, a town’s fire chief, when wrongfully accused of illegally firing a former firefighter.

Employment
We represented numerous nonprofits and businesses in the transition of leadership from one generation to the other avoiding costly litigation and treating each generation fairly.