The Maine Justice Foundation has established three prestigious annual awards to recognize individuals who have demonstrated exceptional dedication, innovation, and impact in advancing access to justice.
Howard H. Dana, Jr. Award | Sen/ Anne Carney, D-Cumberland
The Howard H. Dana, Jr. Award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to advancing access to justice. The Maine Justice Foundation presents the Howard H. Dana, Jr. award annually to a lawyer to recognize significant contributions toward enhancing access to civil legal assistance and outstanding service in the advancement of the Foundation’s goals. This year, the Board of Directors unanimously voted to award the 2024 Howard H. Dana, Jr. Award to Sen. Anne Carney. Carney was nominated by Pine Tree Legal Assistance, the Clinical Programs at Maine Law, the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Legal Services for Maine Elders, Maine Equal Justice, and the Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project. The nomination shares that “Senator Carney’s commitment to enhancing civil legal assistance for Maine residents spans decades, beginning well before her tenure in the Maine Legislature and continuing through her current service.”
On learning she was the recipient of the 2024 Award, Carney said, “Maine has an incredible network of legal services providers who make available quality representation to thousands of Mainers with limited resources to protect their rights to housing, education, public benefits, and safety from acts of violence. I’ve been fortunate to see this firsthand during my time with Pine Tree Legal Assistance and am grateful to have a role ensuring that this strong, effective network continues to serve Mainers in need.”
New Lawyer Award | Lisa Kay Rosenthal
Established by the Foundation in 2010, the New Lawyer Award is presented annually to an outstanding lawyer who has been in practice for less than10 years, exemplifies the ideals of increasing access to justice, makes outstanding and recognized pro bono service or other contributions to the legal profession and public good, and demonstrates a strong commitment to the mission of the Foundation. The Board of Directors of the Maine Justice Foundation unanimously voted for Lisa Kay Rosenthal, an attorney at Vafiades, Brountas & Kominsky, to be the recipient of the 2024 award. Lisa Kay Rosenthal was nominated by Deirdre Smith, executive director of Volunteer Lawyers Project, and the staff of the Volunteer Lawyers Project in recognition of her work in VLP’s Bangor office.
Smith shared in her nomination, “Lisa has accepted a number of referrals from the Volunteer Lawyers Project Bangor office, mostly for probate and estate matters. Her work with VLP started when she was a law student in the Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, when she was the lead drafter of a comprehensive Guide to Kinship Care and Minor Guardianship in Maine, which is available online and through probate courts around the state.” Lisa Kay Rosenthal’s exceptional dedication to increasing access to justice, outstanding pro bono contributions, and unwavering commitment to the legal profession and public good exemplifies the ideals of the New Lawyer Award.
Rosenthal shared, “I am honored to be the recipient of the New Lawyer Award and am committed to increasing access to justice for low-income and rural Mainers, a commitment that began under Deirdre Smith’s mentorship during law school. Estate planning documents are important regardless of your economic status to, for example, designate guardians for minor children, plan for your loved one to inherit your estate if you have an unregistered domestic partner, provide a home for beloved pets after your passing, and designate an agent to manage your financial and health affairs if you become incapacitated. It is a privilege to sit with someone and discuss their legacy, no matter the economic value of their estate. Everyone deserves that dignity, and I am grateful to the Volunteer Lawyers Project and the Maine Justice Foundation for facilitating pro bono opportunities in estate planning and probate matters, and to my law firm, VBK, for fostering a firm culture that encourages pro bono service across all legal disciplines.”
Downing Award | Chet Randall
Created by the family of Thomas P. Downing, Jr. after his death in November 1985, the Downing Award recognizes legal aid staff dedicated to access to justice for vulnerable and low-income Mainers. Tom was one of the first attorneys to work at Pine Tree Legal Assistance. In recognition of his tireless service to Mainers in need of legal assistance for almost three decades, the Board of Directors of the Maine Justice Foundation unanimously voted for Chet Randall to receive the 2024 Downing Award. Randall was nominated by Tom Fritzsche, Executive Director on behalf of Pine Tree Legal Assistance in recognition of his incredible dedication to access to justice for vulnerable and low-income Mainers.
The nomination shares, “Chet has spent over twenty-one of his 28 years in public interest law working at Pine Tree Legal Assistance. He has served in numerous roles at Pine Tree and has always been willing to do whatever the organization needed to keep up the effort for equal access to justice across Maine.” Chet’s tireless dedication to justice, leadership, and advocacy over his twenty-one years at Pine Tree Legal Assistance, and nearly thirty-year legal career has rightfully earned him the 2024 Downing Award from the Maine Justice Foundation. On learning he was the recipient of the 2024 award Chet said, “It has been a privilege and honor for me to use the bulk of my career to serve low-income Mainers who struggle daily to live safe and healthy lives in our communities. From a fairly young age, I felt a calling to get a legal degree and use it to assist people with low incomes, and that are left vulnerable by their economic circumstances. My work at Pine Tree Legal Assistance has allowed me to answer that calling by working every day to ensure that laws intended to protect everyone are actually accessible by everyone – including vulnerable and poor people in Maine. I know that access to justice is a mission shared by every person at Pine Tree Legal Assistance and the greater legal services community. I am both humbled and deeply honored to receive the Downing Award. It is deeply meaningful to me to have my life’s work recognized in this way.”
The Maine Justice Foundation is proud to honor these remarkable individuals whose commitment and achievements in advancing access to justice resonate throughout Maine’s communities. Sen. Anne Carney, Lisa Kay Rosenthal, and Chet Randall exemplify the dedication, compassion, and tireless advocacy essential to creating a more just and equitable legal landscape for all Mainers. “It is a humbling privilege to witness the selfless generosity of these legal heroes. Through their leadership, service, and steadfast pursuit of justice, they continue to strengthen our justice system for those most in need, and by doing so, ensure that bedrock principle of ‘justice for all’ rings true. The Foundation celebrates their achievements and contributions, which reflect the enduring values of fairness and justice for all Maine people,” states Michelle Draeger, executive director of the Maine Justice Foundation.
The Maine Justice Foundation, founded in 1983 as the Maine Bar Foundation, is the state’s leading funder of civil legal aid and is committed to ensuring access to justice for all Maine people. Find us online at www.justicemaine.org.
