Joan Fortin

“Me” is the leitmotif for several Maine women business and nonprofit leaders in their 40s and 50s who are pressing pause on their careers to focus on themselves.

Kaveri Subbarao will start her new role on Feb. 10, succeeding Joan Fortin as head of the Portland-based law firm.

While the numbers of attorneys and firm rankings are in constant flux, the year-to-year changes reflect the state’s evolving legal landscape.

After more than 25 years at Maine's largest law firm and more than four years at the helm, Joan Fortin will leave the post of CEO. She will remain through the end of 2024, the firm announced Wednesday.

Bernstein Shur, the Portland-based law firm that is also Maine's largest, has elected four new shareholders across the firm’s diverse practice groups.

As families are created in new ways, new legal issues have arisen. Maine's largest law firm has launched a practice that specializes in them.

The three new members will join board members Sam Anderson, Katherine Knox, Kai McGintee and CEO Joan Fortin.

Rebecca Asen, formerly associate general counsel at IDEXX Laboratories Inc., is the new director of attorney recruiting and professional development at Bernstein Shur.

As many workers leave their jobs and rethink life priorities during the pandemic, Mainebiz checked in with five Mainers who have reinvented themselves professionally to find out how the COVID economic upheaval is playing out in Maine.

The latest Mainebiz list, out in the Nov. 15 edition, shows some changes in the top five firms, as ranked by attorneys in Maine.