Summer 2001, pg. 140. A close look at one celebration and the people it honored: Remembering Law Day.

Maine Bar Journal

2001.

Summer 2001, pg. 140.

A close look at one celebration and the people it honored: Remembering Law Day

Maine Bar JournalSummer 2001A close look at one celebration and the people it honored: Remembering Law DayTHE MAINE BAR FOUNDATION HAS SPONSORED LAW DAY IN Maine each May 1 since 1990, always focusing on the legal needs of Maine residents. This year, noted Justice Leigh Saufley on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Cumberland County's Law Day celebration, "We continue that tradition by honoring legal professionals who have made it possible for the voice of Maine citizens to be heard in our courtrooms.

"In the past several years, the Maine courts have been focusing particularly on the needs of families and children who have come into the court system. It is particularly appropriate, therefore, that Law Day this year focuses on the needs of children within the legal system. We would be hard pressed to find an issue of greater importance than that of the interests of the children of this state. We are fortunate in Maine to have a group of professionals, lawyers, judges, and bar organizations who are willing to put an extraordinary amount of time and effort into furthering the causes of children whose lives have brought them into our judicial system."

In Cumberland County, as in celebrations elsewhere throughout the state on May 1, several lawyers and judges were honored for their work in family law:

* It was from now-retired Judge Alexander MacNichol, said Saufley, "that I came to understand the dire circumstances of many families who were forced into contact with the judicial system, and it was from him that I learned how grave was the need for patience, creativity, and compassion. ... At a time when there were too few judges, too few courtrooms, and overflowing dockets, he taught me never to forget that it was a person, not a 'case,' that was standing before the bench."

* "In thirty-six years on the bench in Portland District Court," said Judge Rick Lawrence, Judge Bernard Devine "handled hundreds of thousands of cases. We can imagine the number of children whose lives he affected. His reputation as a respected jurist arose from the fairness, kindness and compassion he exhibited from the bench."

* Retired Judge Harriet Henry, the first woman appointed to the bench in Maine, presided in all...