Edward (Ted) J. Kelleher

Ted Kelleher is a business, transactional, and real estate lawyer with broad experience representing a diverse variety of businesses. Over the close to twenty five years he has been practicing at Drummond Woodsum, he has been a trusted advisor to companies both large and small, ranging from start-ups to large, long established, national businesses. He has counseled clients on business sales and acquisitions, commercial loans, equity financings, real estate transactions, intellectual property issues and many other transactional and contract matters.

Ted heads the firm’s Regulated Substances Practice, which focuses on consumer products industries with heavy regulatory oversight, in particular brewing, distilling and the newly emerging marijuana industry. Ted is widely recognized as one of the preeminent business and regulatory lawyers for marijuana related businesses in New England. He has represented dispensaries, Native American tribes, investors, landlords and property owners and municipalities as they try to navigate the complex and quickly changing world of marijuana laws, regulations and business transactions.  A thought leader in this industry, he has spoken widely about marijuana legal and business issues to a variety of civic and business groups. Working closely with attorneys in our nationally recognized Indian practice, Ted has counseled Indian tribes across the nation as they consider and explore tribal cannabis enterprises. 

Ted is also one of leading experts in New England on the use of federal tax credit programs in the development of real estate projects. In particular, Ted is recognized as a leader in the field of developing affordable housing using the federal Low Income Housing Tax Credit program. He has successfully represented private and non-profit developers in the financing and construction of hundreds of units of affordable housing in Maine, New Hampshire and elsewhere in the United States. He also has deep expertise in the use of historic rehabilitation tax credits and the New Markets Tax Credit program.

Ted is a member of the South Portland Zoning Board of Appeals, and previously served as an elected member of the Peaks Island Council.