About Jon

Family

Jon has been married to Juliet Browne for eighteen years. Juliet is a lawyer with the Portland-based law firm of Verrill Dana, where she chairs the Environmental Law Group. Juliet represents individuals, businesses and environmental groups, and works collaboratively to resolve their environmental challenges. She also works with regulators and stakeholder groups to develop and update environmental regulations and programs in the State. Juliet is among New England’s leading renewable energy and wind power lawyers, having successfully permitted more megawatts of wind energy than anyone else in the region.

Jon and Juliet have an eleven-year-old daughter, Darcy Hinck. In school Darcy is learning Spanish and Latin and has been studying the history of the ancient world. Darcy plays soccer on a Portland PAYSA travel team. She enjoys dance and piano and helps neighbors with child care and dog walking.

Legislative

Accomplishments and Highlights of Jon’s First Term in the Maine Legislature

• Introduced and helped gain passage of a law establishing Maine’s first statewide building energy code.
• Introduced and gained passage of a law that, for the first time in Maine, licenses some building contractors.
• Introduced and gained passage of a law that limits commercial vehicle idling.
• Introduced and passed a law that requires notice to tenants of older apartment building when renovations will create a lead dust hazard.
• Passed Maine’s first law creating a shield for journalists who protect confidential sources.
• Passed a law that helps to preserve historic neighborhood schools.

In addition, Jon actively supported passage of a number of other bills including for laws providing for: 1) protections for Maine children from toxic chemicals in consumer products; 2) minimum wage increases; and 3) tighter legislative ethics rules requiring greater financial disclosure and allowing citizens to file ethics complaints.

Professional

A Proven Track Record: 1978–2008

• Project Leader for the Natural Resources Council of Maine

• Co-Founder & Director of Greenpeace USA

  Helped to achieve a worldwide ban on nuclear waste dumping at sea; cleanups of toxic waste superfund sites; and protections of whales and other endangered species.

• Kyoto (Global Warming) Convention Delegate

• Private Law Practice

  As an Attorney, Jon has represented plaintiffs in individual and class-actions of people and group actions over dangerous or defective products, securities and investment fraud, consumer fraud and false advertising, environmental damage and toxic exposures, and abuses of civil rights.

  Some of Jon’s notable cases include major class actions on behalf of well-owners against major oil companies over contamination caused by MTBE, a gasoline additive; and individual cases on behalf of victims of dangerous pharmaceuticals like Baycol, Trovan and Oxycontin; and the Exxon Valdez oil spill case where Jon represented 1,400 Alaskan fishers and native villagers in one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.

• Acting Attorney General for the Pacific nation of Palau

  Successfully handled the cases that enabled Palau to become a sovereign nation in 1994.