ATTORNEY PROFILE

GEORGE E. H. GAY, ESQ.

George's practice concentrates in the areas of divorce and family law, land use and environmental law, criminal defense, and civil litigation. He has been licensed to practice in Vermont since 1994. He is also a member of the bar in Colorado, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. And, he is admitted as an attorney in the United District Court for the District of Vermont and United States District Court for the District of Maryland.  

George is a skilled, determined negotiator and advocate for his clients. His colleagues, co-counsel and opponents alike call him tenacious. He represents clients in Vermont’s trial courts throughout the state, from Rutland County to Franklin County, St. Johnsbury to Middlebury. He appears regularly before the Vermont Supreme Court, and he has extensive experience before municipal zoning and planning boards and state agencies. He has a deep understanding of Vermont’s Environmental Court and national natural resource law.

After graduating from Virginia Tech in 1981 with a bachelor's degree in Forestry and Wildlife Management, George earned his J.D. from Vermont Law School in 1985 with a special concentration in environmental law. After law school, George served as Assistant Attorney General in Annapolis, Maryland where he represented the Chesapeake Bay Critical Areas Commission in zoning and planning matters and the state’s Fish and Game authorities in criminal and civil litigation before municipalities and state agencies and trial and appellate courts.  

The position of General Counsel for the Vermont Environmental and Water Resources Board brought George and his family to Vermont where he has lived and worked for more than 25 years. In 2003, George left state government to serve as the Executive Director of the Northern Forest Alliance where he founded the Vermont Wildlife Partnership. Based on his extensive conservation experience, partnership building skills, and a passion for inspiring ethics in others, George was awarded a prestigious one-year assignment from the Department of Defense in 2014. As the Deputy Program Director of Regional Partnerships and Large Landscape Conservation, George worked with the Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration (REPI) program, providing a framework for military services to partner with outside organizations and communities to ensure the military’s training, testing, and operational requirements avoided encroachment, supported working landscapes, and protected critical wildlife habitats. After his post with the DoD, George returned to private practice with Breton & Simon, PLC before joining LSK in 2018 and expanding the renowned Mad River Valley practice to Stowe.  

George’s life's work has been about helping people and caring for the communities in which we live. George hopes that he can help families and individuals through their most complex and personal challenges, and use his experience in land use and environmental law to help clients make our local, national and even global communities healthier and more secure places to work and live. 

George has called Stowe home for more than 25 years. He and his wife Lisa are deeply embedded in and committed to their communities, those in the Green Mountains and beyond.