AUBURN — Skelton Taintor & Abbott announces that attorney Benjamin J. Smith has recently joined the firm.

Smith was a staff attorney at the Maine Public Utilities Commission, where he advised the commission on utility and energy matters and also served as a hearing examiner in adjudicatory and non-adjudicatory proceedings. Smith focuses his practice on public utility and energy law, government, municipal and administrative law.

He received his J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law and his B.A., cum laude, from the University of Maine. He is admitted to practice in the state courts of Maine, the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Active in his community, Smith also serves as selectman and property tax assessor for the town of Chelsea as chairman of both boards.