Nathaniel Bessey

In business planning and litigation, Nathaniel Bessey provides practical legal advice to clients, focusing on multistate businesses including online and multichannel retailers and providers of telecommunications and software services.

Nat has extensive experience representing clients in contested state and local tax matters. He has represented major clients, including Fortune 500 companies and some of the largest internet retailers, in all aspects of the state tax dispute process, from audit to administrative appeal to court challenge.

He was co-counsel to the American Catalog Mailers Association in the ACMA’s successful court challenge of California Franchise Tax Board guidance that purported to remove important federal protections from state income tax relied upon by out-of-state business engaged in interstate commerce.

Nat closely follows a range of legal issues that impact the online and multichannel retail industry, and he regularly advises clients on data privacy and security, website accessibility, and consumer protection matters.
In addition, Nat has represented public and private schools in Maine in connection with special education matters for more than a decade. Nat has appeared in state and federal court and has argued before the First Circuit Court of Appeals and the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

Prior to joining Brann & Isaacson, Nat worked for a large international law firm in Philadelphia and for a rapidly growing software start–up in Washington, DC, advising on issues of consumer data privacy. Nat has lived and worked in Germany as a recipient of the Robert Bosch Foundation Fellowship and is proficient in German.