ATTORNEYS

R . Peter Decato
R. Peter Decato began to practice law in 1973. From 1973 to the current date, Peter has been involved in both litigation and transactions. On the litigation side, he has tried well over one hundred jury trials and multiples of that number before Judges in various state and federal courts. He has over fifty appellate decisions from the New Hampshire and/or Vermont Supreme Court and from the 1st and 2nd Circuits of the Federal Courts of Appeal. He has been municipal counsel to a variety of local communities to include the City of Lebanon (nine years), the town of Canaan and the town of Grantham.

In addition to practicing law, Peter has been actively involved in his community. He is a former Chairman of the Board of Trustees for the highly successful Carter Community Building Association. He has served on that board in excess of twenty years.

Peter is a former Trustee for the Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital in Lebanon, New Hampshire and the Grafton County  Senior Citizens' Council. He has acted as an Overseer for the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.

Peter is the principal owner of LaBombard Real Estate Co., Inc. Previously, Peter was involved in his family's business, Decato Bros., Inc., a trucking company that at one time had one hundred ten tractors and two hundred flat bed trailers. This company had about one hundred fifty employees and operated in Canada and the United States.

Peter is a retired Colonel (0-6) having served for more than twenty eight years in the New Hampshire Army National Guard. At retirement, he was the New Hampshire Army National Guard Staff Judge Advocate. Peter played basketball for the University of New Hampshire. He graduated from there with a degree in Business Administration. He then went on to law school and graduated from the University of Maine School of Law. He is a member of the Grafton County, as well as the New Hampshire and Vermont Bars.

William A Whitten
Bill is a long time resident of New England and the Upper Valley. Bill's father made a career in the Air Force and as a result, Bill and his family lived across the USA and also in Europe. In 1969, Bill graduated from the University of Vermont (Go Cats Go), with a B.A. in political science. In 1970, he joined the United States Air Force and served one year in Thailand, during the Vietnam War.

Bill subsequently pursued his long term goal which was to attend law school. In 1982, he graduated cum laude from Vermont Law School. He has been an attorney in the Upper Valley since his graduation from law school. In 1986, Bill joined the Mountain Infantry Company of the New Hampshire National Guard based in Lebanon, New Hampshire. In January, 2004, Bill was activated with the mountain company and served on active duty in Iraq, returning to the Upper Valley in late February, 2005.

Bill is a long term adjunct instructor with Franklin Pierce College, the Community College of Vermont and Lebanon College. Bill has three adult children, Leigh, Michelle and Craig all of whom reside in the Upper Valley.

Bill's areas of practice include Family Law, Bankruptcy Law, Criminal Law and Workers Compensation, as well as Civil Law. He is licensed to practice law in the states of New Hampshire and Vermont. Bill has been an attorney at Decato for nearly 30 years.

Brad W. Wilder
Brad is a lifelong resident of the Upper Valley, having grown up in Plainfield, New Hampshire, where he still resides. For over two decades, Brad worked in his family's business, Hy-On-A-Hill Trout Farm, Inc., an aquaculture facility that raised in excess of 200,000 brook and rainbow trout annually for sale throughout New England. In 1989, Brad graduated from Dartmouth College, where he majored in Government. Brad received his Juris Doctorate degree in 1993 from Vermont Law School. After law school, Brad was honored with the opportunity of serving as a judicial law clerk at the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire, first for Judge Martin F. Loughlin, and then for Magistrate Judge James R. Muirhead. Brad is licensed to practice law in the New Hampshire and Vermont Federal Courts. Throughout his legal career, Brad has practiced in a variety of legal areas, including personal injury, criminal defense, real estate, civil rights violations, employment matters, estate planning, municipal law and civil litigation. When not practicing law, Brad enjoys spending time with his family, gardening and landscaping, hunting, snowmobiling and hiking.

Renée A. Harvey
Renée is one of the newest members of the Decato Law Office, having joined the firm in July 2006, after clerking with an estate, tax and business planning specialist for over three years. Her practice focuses  primarily in the areas of estate planning, probate law, taxation, business law, and family law.

Renée is a native of New York State. She achieved her associates degree in court reporting from Herkimer College in 1990, and operated an independent court reporting business in Herkimer, Oneida and Madison Counties for ten years. This interaction with the legal system, coupled with the fact that her husband is a law enforcement officer, further prompted her interest in the law. This eventually led to her obtaining her bachelor's degree from the State University of New York in 1999, and her Juris Doctorate from Vermont Law School in 2003. She is licensed to practice law in the State of Vermont.

Renée and her husband have made their home in Norwich, Vermont. When not practicing law, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, home decorating and landscaping, traveling in Maine, cooking, and reading.