New Crowdfunding Option Available in Maine

The Press Herald has a good primer on the new law that allows small companies to raise funding through crowdfunding.

Under Maine’s crowdfunding law, entrepreneurs can raise capital by selling equity or debt in their companies to anyone. The exchange of money for equity or debt does require regulatory oversight and includes some restrictions.

They also report on a company getting ready to launch that will help match up companies approved to raise funds under the new law and investors. The web site Backer.ly should launch in 2015.

By downeastlaw, ago

Scarborough Land Trust buys Benjamin Farm | Keep Me Current

The Scarborough Land Trust has completed the purchase of the 135-acre Benjamin Farm property on Pleasant Hill Road. Land trust officials joined members of the Jerrerd Benjamin family at the closing on Dec. 12.

Located two miles from Higgins Beach, Benjamin Farm consists of open fields, woods and wetlands, and contains headwaters of the Spurwink River. It abuts Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge and is part of a wildlife and wetlands corridor that reaches to Scarborough Marsh. It is one of the last, large open spaces in one of the most populated areas of town.

via Scarborough Land Trust buys Benjamin Farm – Keep Me Current: News.

By downeastlaw, ago

Brunswick business incubator aims for January opening | The Forecaster

Officials at the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority, the agency overseeing conversion of the base to civilian use, believe TechPlace will become a cornerstone for new business development at Brunswick Landing.

The aim is to bring in small companies in high-tech industries like aerospace, composite materials, renewable energy and information technology, and give them the space and resources to grow and connect with other businesses.

via Brunswick business incubator aims for January opening | The Forecaster.

By downeastlaw, ago

University of Maine School of Law  Seeks Dean

The University of Maine School of Law invites inquiries, nominations, and applications for the position of Dean, with an anticipated start date of July 1, 2015. The Law School seeks a Dean with a successful track record of administrative and fiscal leadership experience and one who possesses the vision, energy, and determination to lead the school. The successful candidate will be an innovative, entrepreneurial, and collaborative leader who can bring diverse stakeholders together to enhance and build on the Law School’s existing strengths. 

The University of Maine School of Law, located in Portland, has a student body of approximately 275, an intentionally small size allowing for extensive faculty-student contact and fostering a strong sense of community. The Law School provides our students with a rigorous and innovative curriculum that blends traditional theory with diverse opportunities for experiential learning. Students work closely with a talented, collegial faculty that is engaged locally and nationally in both public service and high-level scholarship. The Law School enjoys a close connection to and excellent reputation within the Maine bench, bar and community-at-large, and the right candidate will recognize, appreciate and nurture these valued relationships.

To review the full position description and information about the application process, please visit:  http://mainelaw.maine.edu/dean-search/
By downeastlaw, ago

Funds for court-appointed attorneys runs out

“Attorneys assigned to represent criminal defendants facing jail time and others entitled to court-appointed counsel will not be paid during the month of June because the commission will run out of money at the end of May, John Pelletier, executive director of the commission, said last week.

Lawyers will be paid after July 1 for work done previously when the new fiscal year begins, he said. The same thing happened last year and in 2008, when the judiciary still was responsible for paying court-appointed attorneys.”

via BDN Maine.

By downeastlaw, ago

Supreme Court to Allow Arguments Online

“Live audio streaming of Supreme Judicial Court arguments begins on Wednesday. Chief Justice Leigh Saufley announced the new service during her State of the Judiciary speech to the Legislature in February.

The court’s government and media counsel, Mary Ann Lynch, calls streaming a great step forward in making the work of the Supreme Judicial Court accessible “to all Maine people, no matter where they live.” Computers with Internet access are available in every public library in Maine.” via Bangor Daily News .

Watch online here: http://www.courts.state.me.us/maine_courts/supreme/stream.shtml

By downeastlaw, ago

Court Approves LURC Rezoning for Plum Creek

The Supreme Court has removed one more hurdle for the developers of the Plum reek project around Moosehead Lake.  While the overall zoning has been changed, each individual project still needs to go through its own approval process.

The state supreme court supported the Land Use Regulation Commission’s rezoning of nearly 400,000 acres in the Moosehead region. The concept plan allows Plum Creek to create up to 975 house lots and two large resorts on roughly 16,000 of those acres over the next 30 years.

Plum Creek must receive permits for each subdivision or resort, all but guaranteeing the regulatory skirmishes with opponents are far from complete. But in the immediate future, the court’s ruling will trigger the completion of a conservation deal guaranteeing public access to 363,000 acres of timberland that will remain working forests. …

A Superior Court justice … halted the plan after determining LURC violated its own rules by not holding another public hearing before adopting a substantially rewritten rezoning application. He remanded the case back to LURC for additional hearings.

The Supreme Court disagreed Thursday. “We conclude that LURC did not violate its procedural rules and did not otherwise err by approving the rezoning petition and concept plan,” the court wrote.

via Bangor Daily News — BDN Maine.

By downeastlaw, ago

Website for Mortgage Settlement

For more information on the settlement between the banks and states attorneys general is here:

http://nationalmortgagesettlement.com/

The settlement will provide as much as $25 billion in relief to distressed borrowers and direct payments to states and the federal government. It’s the largest multistate settlement since the Tobacco Settlement in 1998.

The agreement settles state and federal investigations finding that the country’s five largest loan servicers routinely signed foreclosure related documents outside the presence of a notary public and without really knowing whether the facts they contained were correct.  Both of these practices violate the law.  The settlement provides benefits to borrowers whose loans are owned by the settling banks as well as to many of the borrowers whose loans they service.

By downeastlaw, ago