Four Attorneys Join Verrill Dana, LLP

PORTLAND, ME (November 3, 2008) - Four attorneys have joined the law firm of Verrill Dana, LLP.  All are assigned to the firm’s Portland office:  Adrianne E. Balzano-Brookes, Tiana S. Gierke and Katie M. Gray have joined as Associates, and Malinda R. Lawrence has joined as Counsel.

Adrianne E. Balzano-Brookes received her law degree from the University of Maine School of Law where she graduated magna cum laude and was a member of the Maine Law Review.  Adrianne graduated cum laude from Mount Holyoke College with a double major in international relations and Spanish.  She was a summer associate at Verrill Dana in 2006.  Prior to joining Verrill Dana, Adrianne clerked for the Hon. Ellen A. Gorman of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

Tiana S. Gierke received her law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law where she received special honors with high distinction and was a member of the Iowa Law Review and Order of the Coif.  Tiana graduated cum laude from Bowdoin College where she majored in Spanish.  She was a summer associate at Verrill Dana in 2007.  Before attending law school, Tiana was an elementary teacher at a bilingual school in Honduras and worked at a think-tank in Washington DC focusing on international policy.

Katie M. Gray is a graduate of Boston University School of Law.  During her first summer in law school, Katie interned at the New Hampshire Attorney General’s office.  She was a summer associate at Verrill Dana during her second summer.  Prior to law school, Katie held internships at the Maine District Court in Lewiston and the elections division of Maine’s Secretary of State.  She is a 2005 graduate of the University of Maine, Orono, and its Honors College.

Malinda R. Lawrence is Counsel in Verrill Dana's Environmental and Energy Law Groups.  Malinda is a graduate of the University of New Hampshire (B.A. in English, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and earned her J.D. from Boston College Law School in 1995.

After law school, Malinda served in the Criminal Bureau and Homicide Unit of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.  In 2003, Malinda joined the United States Department of Justice in Washington D.C. as a Trial Attorney in the Fraud Section of the Criminal Division.  In 2005, Malinda joined the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, where she prosecuted criminal violations of federal environmental statutes.  At Verrill Dana, Malinda’s practice encompasses all aspects of environmental and energy law, as well as white-collar criminal defense.

About Verrill Dana:

Verrill Dana, LLP is a full-service law firm with more than 100 attorneys conducting a nationwide practice from offices in Portland, and Augusta, Maine; Boston; Hartford; and Washington, D.C. To learn more, visit our website at www.verrilldana.com.