D'Amante Couser Steiner Pellerin, P.A. is an experienced law firm dedicated to meeting the needs of individuals and businesses in New Hampshire in the areas of Real Estate Transactions, Real Estate Development, Business Organization and Development, Estate Planning, Banking, Civil Litigation, Domestic Relations and Religious and Nonprofit Organizations. We are an organization rich in tradition and committed to providing a wide range of cost effective, high quality, professional services in our areas of concentration. No client is too large or too small.
The firm began with Ray D'Amante's decision in 1979 to leave a larger firm and establish his own law practice. Over the ensuing twenty-eight years, the last ten with Bryan Pellerin's support, the firm has handled development projects with a value of billions of dollars, represented dozens of residential and commercial developments and national restaurant, hotel, and retail clients, and established itself as the leading law firm in the region in the area of real estate development. Ray, who is also an engineer, and Bryan provide the business counseling, construction legal services, representation of financial institutions, and estate planning and administration services that flow from the firm's commercial and real estate practice.
In recent years, the firm has grown from a real estate, business and estate planning based practice to a true full service law firm. Dick Couser, Jim Steiner, and Gayle Braley each came to the firm from a background of practice with much larger law firms in New Hampshire and Washington, D.C. In 2006 the firm invited Michael Kostiew to joint the firm, which increased the practice to it's current size of six attorneys.
Dick Couser has been recognized as one of the "Best Lawyers in New Hampshire" for more than fifteen years in the areas of business/commercial litigation and personal injury litigation by two independent rating services. In his thirty-eight plus years of trial experience in the courtrooms of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, he has been responsible for individual cases with values in the tens of millions of dollars and more. In addition to his trial practice, Dick counsels churches and other religious and nonprofit organizations. He is the author of Ministry and the American Legal System, a 400 page hardcover legal guide for pastors and lay church leaders that has been called "the best church law text in print" and received the Book of the Year award from Your Church magazine in 1994. He has served as President of the Christian Legal Society, a national organization of attorneys of the Christian faith.
Jim Steiner is a leading family law practitioner and civil litigation, a West Point graduate and former Green Beret and Army Ranger who brings the tenacity of his training to the courtroom. Among his many accomplishments, he began his legal career serving as law clerk to the Chief Justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court and he has been made an adjunct faculty member for trial practice of the Widener School of Law.
Gayle Braley, who also served as a law clerk at the New Hampshire Supreme Court, has a wide ranging background that qualifies her to do estate planning, nonprofit and religious counseling, probate litigation, and other matters. She has practiced in Washington, D.C. and New Hampshire.
The attorneys in the firm are supported by a staff of five paralegals with years of experience in business and real estate, estate planning, litigation, and family law, enabling the firm to deliver quality service in the most cost-effective manner.
The firm is committed to active community participation. Attorneys have served in a number of nonprofit and community capacities. D'Amante Couser Steiner Pellerin is a major sponsor of the New Hampshire Highland Games, the home of the World Scottish Heavy Events Championships, and awards The D'Amante Cup to the winner each year.
