N. Joel Moser

Here’s why you’ll enjoy working with him.

With a strong professional and educational background in governmental administration and compliance, Joel is a practical, results-driven advocate who is uniquely qualified to represent clients in regulatory and property tax matters. He understands the importance of long-term relationships with regulators and municipalities, and leverages his training and experience to distill large amounts of complex data into clear, thoughtful, and effective counsel.

In his energy practice, Joel represents generation facility developers and owners, renewable energy companies, utilities, and competitive energy suppliers in all regulatory compliance matters across New England. In his property tax practice, he assists clients with assessment appeals, tax collection, and analysis and financial modeling of local property tax obligations.

As chair of the firm’s Property Tax & Valuation Team and an associate member of the International Association of Assessing Officers (IAAO), Joel also regularly presents about the emergent and perennial issues facing taxpayers, assessors, communities, and public and private entities. Joel has advised clients on over a billion dollars in property tax assessed values and teaches across the country on successfully managing large abatement appeals, and has also litigated some of northern New England’s largest property tax abatement cases, including those involving renewable energy projects and power plants, so-called “dark stores,” and large commercial properties.

But that’s not all. Joel is also very experienced in:

• Representing energy clients before the Maine Public Utilities Commission, New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission, Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, and ISO New England
• Negotiating interconnection and transmission agreements, and wholesale and retail contracts for the purchase and sale of energy, capacity, renewable energy certificates, and ancillary services
• Representing clients in rate and rate design proceedings, tariff revisions, rulemaking, and regulatory enforcement actions
• Advising retail electricity suppliers on licensing and regulatory standards, including compliance with state renewable portfolio standards
• Assisting public and private clients in property tax assessment and discrimination challenges before local assessing officers, appeal boards, and courts of law
• Municipal litigation, including assessment appeals, 80B appeals, land use and police power enforcement actions, declaratory judgments, and constitutional challenges

In his former life, Joel was:

• Law clerk to the Honorable Leigh I. Saufley, Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court
• Serving as a legal extern to the Honorable Kermit V. Lipez, Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
• Designing and implementing health-access programs as a special projects manager for the Franklin Community Health Network in Farmington, Maine

When Joel isn’t working, he is…

Serving as a Board Member for Pine Tree Legal Assistance, and enjoying Lewiston’s downtown and walking trails with his wife and sons. When indoors, he is probably revisiting a favorite Star Trek episode—but not from just any series; he stays true to the Next Generation.

Presentations

International Association of Assessing Officers, Chair, Legal Task Force; Member, Task Force on Contracting for Assessment Services:

• Assessing Energy Generation and Transmission Properties in a Changing World (2023 IAAO Legal Seminar, Louisville, Kentucky)
• Assessors, Lawyers, and Taxpayers – We’re in this together (Breakdown of the Assessment & Appeal Process; Preparing to be a Witness; and Mediation and Conflict Resolution) (2022 IAAO Legal Seminar, Austin, TX)
• Successfully Prepare, Defend, and Manage Large Appeals, 85^th Annual International Conference on Assessment Administration (Minneapolis, MN)
• Lecturer, Preparation and Trial of the Property Tax Appeal Seminar (University of North Carolina School of Government, Charlotte, NC)
• Responsibilities of Assessors in Utilizing Information Gathering Tools, 2019 State of Maine Winter Chapter Meeting (Lewiston, Maine)
• Lecturer, Prepare, Defend, and Manage “Mega” Assessment Cases, 2019 IAAO International Webinar Series
• Advising Assessors: Ethical Considerations, IAAO Legal Seminar (Phoenix, AZ)
• Post-COVID: Assessing the New Normal, 2021 State of Maine Winter Chapter Meeting (Virtual)
• Assessing Post-COVID: Practical Considerations, 2021 IAAO/URISA National Webina
• Valuing Large Scale Solar, Maine Chapter of the International Association of Assessing Officers & Maine Association of Assessing Officers, 2022 Chapter Meeting (Virtual)

Maine Association of Assessing Officers:

• Right Title & Interest­- Who has it and Who Should be the Referee? (2012 Annual Conference)
• Properties Entitled to Tax Exempt Status under Maine Law (2013 Annual Conference)
• The Challenging World of Challenges to Assessments (2014 Annual Conference)
• Part and Parcel Assessing Parcels, 706 Requests, Sudden and Severe Statute, and Updates from the Field (2015 Annual Conference)
• Personal Property Lien Procedures, Subdivision Lots, BETE Appeals, and Updates from the Field (2016 Annual Conference)
• Constitutional Equity, “Special” Assessments, Poverty Abatements, and Preparing the Mega Case (2017 Annual Conference)
• Section 706-A, Dark Stores, and the Mega Case (2018 Annual Conference)
• Assessor Ethics (2019 Annual Conference)
• Assessing Post-COVID (PT203), Maine Revenue Services, Property Tax Division Property Tax School (August 2021)
• What is Benevolent and Charitable? (2020 Annual Conference)
• Ethics for the Assessor (2021 Annual Conference)
• Central Maine Association of Assessing Officers,  2022 Spring Seminar Agenda, Section 706-A Dos and Don’ts (2022 Spring Seminar)
• Assessor Ethics, Maine Revenue Services, Property Tax Division Property Tax School (August 2022)
• Assessor Ethics, Maine Association of Assessing Officers (2023 Annual Conference)

New Hampshire Municipal Association:

• IAAO Preparation, Witness Prep, and Decorum, 77^th Annual Conference (Concord, NH)

Northeast Regional Association of Assessing Officers

• Lecturer, Preparing & Presenting the Valuation Appeal, Northeast Regional Association of Assessing Officers / Rhode Island Association of Assessing Officers 2019 Annual Conference (Newport, RI)
• Innovations and Developments in Infrastructure Expansion, PUC Regulation: Where Do We Go From Here (Augusta, Maine)

Publications

• Editor, Maine Chapter, Property Tax Deskbook, American Bar Association, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022
• The Millennial Revolution in Electrical Transmission, Thomson Reuters
• Editor, Standard on Contracting for Assessment Services, International Association of Assessing Officers, (Approved April 2019)