About Allison, Angier & Bartmon, LLP

In October of 2004, the Daily Hampshire Gazette ran an article about Allison, Angier & Bartmon, LLP. The article was written by Kimberly Ashton, Staff Writer. The camaraderie of the attorneys and relaxed atmosphere shown in the following article still reigns true about our law firm.

Since this article ran in 2004, Attorney Linda Pisano left our firm in 2009 to join the Hampden County District Attorney’s office.  Linda is currently Chief Prosecutor of the Child Abuse Unit of the Hampshire County District Attorney's office, joining them in January of 2011. Attorney Sandra Staub left our firm in April of 2010 and is currently the Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Connecticut

Marissa Elkins joined our firm in August of 2009 as partner.  On July 1, 2010,  Diane L. Fernald of Ryan and Fernald joined our firm as partner and our firm became known as Allison, Angier, Bartmon, Elkins & Fernald, LLP.

Archive: October 2004

For 10 years now, Donald Allison has been able to work barefoot wearing jeans, and in the world of corporate law, that's rare. But when you're a partner, and you live in the Valley, you can get away with things like that.


Allison is a founding partner in the recently expanded Amherst law firm Allison, Angier and Bartmon, at 69 S. Pleasant St. Besides being one of the largest firms in town, it has the distinction of being staffed by five former prosecutors.
 Allison left his job at a Springfield firm and rented an office in Amherst with Frederic Bartmon in 1994. The two men had casually known each other in Washington, DC, where Bartmon worked in the public defender's office and Allison was a prosecutor. But they hadn't seen each other in years until they happened to share a park bench in front of the district attorney's office. Allison had joined the Springfield firm Ryan & White and Bartmon was the director of the Northwestern District Attorney's child abuse unit.

They talked about how exhausted they were, Bartmon recalls, saying that he wanted to work part-time to spend more time with his children, who were on "auto-pilot" in some ways because he was so busy with work. "Both of us just basically bailed on the establishment at the same time," Bartmon, 47, said. And the practices took off, he said. Sitting behind a large desk that's flanked by two leather wingback chairs, Allison (still unshod) describes himself as a free spirit.


"It's hard for me to have an image of myself as a former prosecutor," Allison, 52, said. He worked for eight years in the '80s as an Assistant U.S. District Attorney in Washington, D.C., dealing with fraud, corruption and terrorism. Others in the firm worked many more years on the other side of the legal aisle.
 David Angier, 55, for example, who joined the firm one year ago, spent 24 years spent as a prosecutor. He was First Assistant Northwestern District Attorney for much of that time, managing the offices that cover Hampshire and Franklin counties. In fact, he was Bartmon's mentor.


"David is on the short list of people I admire most on the planet," Bartmon said. After leaving the Northwestern District Attorney's office in July 2003, Angier joined the firm, practicing almost every kind of law except criminal.
 To do that, Angier said, "would trade in on personal relationships with police officers," he's developed over the years. But he said as officers retire, he expects he'll be more likely to take more criminal cases. He said it would be hard for him to take alleged child-abuse cases given his role in toughening state child-abuse laws. Though he's taken a couple of criminal cases as favors, he mostly does personal injury, employment discrimination, estate planning, victim representation and housing cases. Some of these he does at reduced cost.


"I have a booming pro-bono business," he joked. Angier, along with the other four lawyers, have private rates that top out around $250 per hour. Angier said he misses working with the police, he said, but is enjoying the freedom to choose what cases he takes. Like all the lawyers at the firm, Angier said it was not difficult making the switch from being a prosecutor to a private lawyer.

The two sides of the system are designed to dovetail, said Bartmon, who mostly takes criminal cases. "To me it's a harmonious endeavor. It's a puzzle that's supposed to fit," he said of being on both sides of the legal system, describing the prosecutor's job as seeing that justice is done and the defense lawyer's role as making sure that the state has proved its case and that their client has been treated fairly.
 "We all loved our jobs," Bartmon said. He worked as an assistant DA from 1985 to 1994. Indeed, every lawyer in the firm talked about their respect for prosecutors and the work they do.


Linda Pisano, who Bartmon said is soon to be a partner, said that her 14 years as prosecutor has influenced her enormously. Pisano, 46, left the Northwestern DA's office last February, feeling it was time to make a change. She said she jumped at the chance to work with Angier, her former boss. She concentrates on real estate law now, she said. "I think that being a prosecutor is one of the best jobs in the world," she said. District attorneys, Pisano said, have both the power to protect the public, and the power to protect the innocent by not bringing charges against them. "As a defense lawyer, you're not calling the shots you're reacting," she said. Pisano, like all the lawyers at Allison, Angier and Bartmon appears to genuinely enjoy working there. "I think we're very intense with our work but very laid back with our personalities," she said, describing the office's atmosphere as "jovial."
 This relaxed tone couldn't be more different from the very formal and prestigious firm Sandra Staub left to join the firm. Although she was a partner at Bulkley, Richardson & Gelinas, Staub wanted to be closer to her children, who attend Amherst schools. Staub practices family law and Bartmon calls her "one of the most coveted lawyers in the state." From 1991 to 1993, Staub worked for three years as an assistant district attorney, spending part of that time as the chief of a domestic violence unit. She then went on to work on community response to domestic violence in Provincetown, and in probate court in Greenfield.


Staub, 43, says the firm "is a lot more relaxed" than others. "It's not an intimidating place for people to come in to," she said. And she's taking a page from Bartmon and Allison's book. Recently, for the first time, she wore jeans to the office. Kimberly Ashton can be reached at kashton@gazettenet.com

Category: Daily Hampshire Gazette
Publication name: Daily Hampshire Gazette
Publication date: Monday, October 11, 2004 

Author: KIMBERLY ASHTON Staff Writer