MaineBusiness.com

Portland, ME – The University of Maine School of Law is pleased to announce a generous gift of $100,000 from Doctors Victor and Anne McKusick of Baltimore, Maryland, to help support the Vincent L. McKusick Diversity Fellowship Fund. With an initial pledge of $100,000 from the law firm of Pierce Atwood LLP, the Maine Law School established this endowment fund late last year with the goal of increasing diversity among the student body and within the legal community in Maine. The Fund honors Vincent L. McKusick, former Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court and Victor McKusick’s twin brother.

“I have decided to match the donation of Pierce Atwood out of a commitment to diversity and to the welfare of my native State of Maine,” stated Dr. Victor McKusick. “And, of course, I do it to honor my DNA-identical brother.”

Victor McKusick is University Professor of Medical Genetics and Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He received the Japan Prize for Medical Genetics earlier this year, awarded to him for his leadership in establishing and developing the field of medical genetics. The gift from Dr. McKusick was given jointly with his wife of 59 years, Anne B. McKusick, M.D., retired Associate Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

The Vincent L. McKusick Diversity Fellowship Fund is designed to provide tuition and other support to incoming law students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, with the intent of increasing diversity. The program will reach out to members of Maine’s new diverse and immigrant communities, members of Maine’s Native American communities, and diverse applicants nationwide. Fellowship awards will include a part-time paid internship at Pierce Atwood during the recipients’ second academic year at the Law School. The goal is to award the first McKusick Fellowship in 2009. The Fund is held by the University of Maine School of Law Foundation, which will assist in securing additional support and growing the endowment significantly larger in the coming years.

“We sincerely thank Drs. Anne and Victor McKusick for such a generous gift and value their commitment to diversity,” says Peter Pitegoff, Dean of the University of Maine School of Law. “We are especially pleased to honor Chief Justice Vincent McKusick, who has inspired so many people in Maine and nationally with his dedication to the legal profession and to social justice.”

In 1952, Mr. McKusick began his career at Pierce Atwood LLP after graduating from Bates College, MIT and Harvard Law School and serving as a law clerk to Second Circuit Chief Judge Learned Hand and then to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter. From 1943 – 1946, he served in the U.S. Army, participating for fourteen months in the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

In 1977, Maine Governor Longley appointed Vincent McKusick Chief Justice, the first such appointment directly from the bar since the appointment of Chief Justice Prentiss Mellon in 1820. Following his retirement from the bench in 1992, he rejoined Pierce Atwood LLP, where he continues serving today as Of Counsel. In that time, Chief McKusick has received three special master appointments from the U.S. Supreme Court, handling original jurisdiction cases between states.

During his fourteen-and-one-half years on Maine’s high court, Chief McKusick brought significant improvements in the structure and operation of all courts, many involving volunteer efforts from within the community, such as Maine’s Mediation Program and its Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Program. Chief McKusick, who with his twin Victor, grew up in Parkman in Piscataquis County, now resides with his wife Nancy McKusick in Cape Elizabeth.

To inquire about making a contribution to the McKusick Diversity Fellowship Fund, contact Elena Brandt at 207-780- 4521. To learn more about the career of Chief McKusick, visit: www.pierceatwood.com/bios/mckusick.html.

Pierce Atwood LLP is the largest law firm based in northern New England and has 130 attorneys who serve regional, national and international clients from offices in Portland and Augusta, Maine; Portsmouth and Concord, New Hampshire Boston, Massachusetts; and Washington, DC. For more information about the firm, its attorneys and services, please visit www.pierceatwood.com.

For more information about the University of Maine School of Law, please visit: www.mainelaw.maine.edu .

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Contact: Jennifer Whittier
Phone: 207-791-1244
Email: JWhittier@PierceAtwood.com