Free legal aid expands in western Maine, thanks to new fellowship
Courtesy / Pine Tree Legal Assistance
A fellowship was created in memory of the late Nan Heald, the longtime executive director of Pine Tree Legal Assistance who died earlier this year.
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A Portland nonprofit is looking to increase access to free civil legal aid in western Maine for people unable to afford an attorney but trying to navigate the law – an unmet need that’s enormous throughout the state.
Pine Tree Legal Assistance has created the Nan Heald Black Fly Fellowship to pay for a law student to work at Pine Tree Legal Assistance to serve Franklin County during the summer. The goal is to increase access to free civil legal aid in western Maine.
The fellowship was created in memory of Pine Tree’s former executive director, who led Pine Tree Legal from 1990 until her death earlier this year. Heald was a 2010 Mainebiz Women to Watch honoree.
The project’s name is a nod to a 1970s newspaper editorial that described Pine Tree Legal as a “defender of low-income people which has burgeoned in Maine and become almost as omnipresent as black flies in June.”
The fellow will work on legal work and community outreach, including building better relationships with community partners in that area of the state. The legal work will focus on housing, public benefits, family law and victims’ rights.
Heald grew up in Oquossoc in the western mountains of Maine. She graduated from Smith College in 1977 and George Washington University Law School in 1980. In 1985, she joined Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Maine’s oldest and largest legal aid provider, as a staff attorney in its Native American Unit. Her primary responsibility was to reverse the exclusion of the Aroostook Band of Micmacs from the 1980 Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act — a reversal that was eventually achieved by the enactment of federal legislation that provides federal recognition to the tribe.
In 1990, at the age of 34, Heald became Pine Tree Legal's executive director. Through funding opportunities and other leveraged support during her tenure, the organization has expanded the legal services and new areas of law available to diverse client populations.
Pine Tree has received close to $200,000 in donations in Heald’s memory to fund the fellowship program. Pine Tree’s board of directors will continue to raise funds for the project. Click here to learn more.
Pine Tree Legal Assistance was incorporated in 1966 and became one of the nation’s first statewide civil legal aid organizations, opening its doors in 1967. It expects to serve more than 6,000 individuals and families this year through direct legal assistance.
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