Lee C. Nyquist

Of Counsel

Biography

Lee is a veteran civil trial attorney who has represented individuals and institutions in several hundred cases in state superior court, federal court, and administrative agencies. Remarkably, he has represented clients in twenty- two reported New Hampshire Supreme Court cases. An attorney since 1978, he has achieved several multi-hundred thousand dollar settlements for injured clients in personal injury and professional negligence cases. Also, practicing extensively in workers compensation at the New Hampshire Labor Department, Lee has completed several successful six-figure settlements for injured workers who were severely injured during the course of their employment. Unlike most New Hampshire attorneys, Lee has represented both injured individuals as plaintiffs, and also businesses and insurance carriers as defendants. This career experience gives him special insight and perspective when handling cases, regardless of which side he is on.

Before joining Shaheen & Gordon as “Of Counsel” in July, 2011, Lee was a founding partner of the successful Manchester law firm, Devine & Nyquist and its successor entities for over 26 years. He began his legal career as Law Clerk to the Honorable Maurice Bois, Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court in 1978, and then practiced with Devine, Millimet & Branch until 1985. A frequent lecturer and author in all of his areas of expertise, Lee also emphasizes employment litigation, business litigation and insurance coverage law. He is chosen by his peers to mediate and arbitrate cases, and is trained and experienced in all aspects of alternative dispute resolution.

Lee has been the Town Moderator of the Town of New Boston since 1992, the Chair of the New Hampshire Unemployment Compensation Advisory Council (appointed by Governor John Lynch) since 2005, and a member of the New Hampshire Workers Compensation Appeals Advisory Board representing the New Hampshire Association for Justice since 2008. He is past president of both the New Hampshire Association for Justice and the Manchester Bar Association. A member of the American Association for Justice, the New Hampshire Association for Justice, and the New Hampshire Bar Association, Lee is also a Fellow of the New Hampshire Bar Foundation. He is a former chair of the Bar Association’s Legislation Committee, Committee on Cooperation with the Courts, and Legal Negligence Committee. He has been a member of the Manchester Rotary Club since 1993.

Admissions

  • State of New Hampshire, 1978
  • United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, 1978
  • United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, 1990

Professional Associations and Memberships

  • New Hampshire Bar Association
  • American Association for Justice
  • New Hampshire Association for Justice, past president
  • Manchester Bar Association, past president
  • Fellow, New Hampshire Bar Foundation

Public and Community Service

  • Town Moderator of the Town of New Boston, 1992-present
  • Chair, New Hampshire Unemployment Compensation Advisory Council, 2005-present
  • Member, New Hampshire Workers Compensation Advisory Board, 2008-present
  • Manchester Rotary Club, Member and past Sergeant-at-Arms, 1993-present
  • Community Church of New Boston, Member and Past Director
  • Gunstock Ski Club, Member and Past Director
  • Daniel Webster Council, Boy Scouts of America, Past Director
  • New Hampshire Lakes Association, Past Director and Past Chair of its Government Affairs Committee

Education and Career

  • Melrose (Mass.) High School, 1970
  • B.A. in Government, cum laude, Harvard College, 1974
  • American University, Washington College of Law, 1978
  • American University Law Review, 1976-1978
  • Law Clerk to Associate Justice Maurice Bois, New Hampshire Supreme Court, 1978-1979
  • Attorney, Devine, Millimet & Branch, 1979-1985
  • Founding Partner, Officer and Attorney,  Devine & Nyquist and its successor entities, 1985-2011

Representative Cases

  • Successfully represented a victim of lawyer malpractice, who suffered complex regional pain syndrome as a result of a rear-end motor vehicle accident, and achieved a multi-hundred thousand dollar settlement
  • Successfully represented a victim of a major motor vehicle accident, who suffered significant injuries, and achieved a multi-hundred thousand dollar settlement
  • Successfully represented a victim of a motor vehicle accident, who suffered fibromyalgia as a result, by trying the case to a multi-hundred thousand dollar award from an uninsured motorist arbitration panel
  • After litigating a case against a condominium association in both federal court and the New Hampshire Supreme Court, successfully achieved a settlement for a victim who was raped in the dark parking lot
  • Successfully tried an intra-family (son vs. father; dominant thumb amputation) log-splitting accident case to a measurable plaintiff’s verdict
  • After litigating a wrongful death case for the family of an 8 year old victim of a bicycle-motor vehicle accident all the way to a decision by the New Hampshire Supreme Court, successfully achieved a measurable settlement for the child’s family
  • Successfully represented innumerable victims of workplace injuries in workers’ compensation cases and successfully achieved substantial settlements, many into the six figures
  • Represented a total of five plaintiffs or claimants all the way to New Hampshire Supreme Court decisions
  • Represented an individual severely injured while working at a race track all the way to a decision by the First Circuit Court of Appeals, and successfully received a multi-million dollar judgment from the New Hampshire federal court judge
  • Represented a total of sixteen insurance companies or their insureds all the way to New Hampshire Supreme Court decisions
  • Successfully represented the defendant, America’s largest rental car company , by trying a high exposure motor vehicle injury and insurance coverage case to a defendant’s verdict against the plaintiff counsel’s closing argument jury request for two million dollars
  • Successfully represented the defendant, one of America’s largest retail companies, by trying a high exposure shopping cart tip-over case to a directed verdict for the defendant
  • Successfully achieved a resolution consistent with the interests of a defendant public wastewater treatment plant and its insurer after years of litigation in a case alleging wrongful death from exposure to bio-solids (sludge)
  • Successfully achieved a resolution consistent with the interests of one of the world’s largest fraternal organizations and its insurer after years of litigation in a dram shop wrongful death case brought by husband and wife decedents killed by a drunk driver