Just before beginning his first year at Harvard Law School, Frank Coffin made this entry in his journal: "I am to study law with the intention of using it as a tool for social progress. I shall aim at the very top; I pray God that I shall never be blinded from seeing this social goal by any personal considerations. God give me humility, patience, ability, willpower and humor." 

 

By all accounts, Judge Frank Coffin, at age 89, has done all of those things and more. A native of Lewiston, his interest in social justice was shaped early on by his grandfather, who was also an attorney. "What I understand is that Judge Coffin had vivid memories of the mill workers in Lewiston waiting to talk to his grandfather about their legal problems and many of them not having the ability to really reimburse the grandfather with cash."    Nan Heald is the executive director of Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Maine's first statewide legal aid program that was created at the urging of Judge Frank Coffin. "It started in 1966 when Judge Coffin gave a speech to the Maine State Bar Association - when Maine was considering the formation of Pine Tree. And (he) helped argue that the state needed a legal aid program to help meet the legal needs of the poor."

 

At the time, Judge Coffin was completing his first year on the bench at the First Circuit. Until that time, Heald says most low income Mainers didn't have access to any legal help: not for divorces, not for cases involving unfair housing conditions, help with government benefit programs, child custody matters, or medical issues. But Heald says Judge Coffin's speech was persuasive. In it he said: “The new program needs to bring the utensils of a government of laws to the service of a people formerly considered beyond the pale of concern." Then, as now, Judge Frank Coffin says there is a lot of work to be done to protect legal assistance and access to the courts. State budget cuts could result in the closure of some courthouses in what he describes as an "already under funded court system."

 

"And the big thing that gives me heart is the determination and heart of the people who form this magnificent legal aid community." Maine attorneys have one of the highest rates of pro-bono service for low income clients in the country. And even with the work of Pine Tree Legal and its splinter group - Maine Equal Justice Partners, which provides legislative advocacy for low income Mainers. Judge Coffin says more volunteerism will be necessary if legal services for the poor are to expand in an unforgiving economy. He also says it's time for Maine to create a public defender system in the state courts. One already exists at the federal level. "Our Maine lawyers are doing an exceptional job of doing a lot of this pro-bono and then those who are not completely pro-bono are doing it out of the goodness of their heart. The amount of money they get from the state for an hour's investment is in the light of today's cost not remunerative at all. They're taking a sacrifice. But ah, yes, I think the time has come for a public defender."

 

How should such a system be funded? That's the question. But Coffin says if the poor don't have access to justice, the state will only be increasing its future liabilities in the form of domestic violence and increased welfare, medical and prison costs. Former Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Court Daniel Wathen worked with Judge Coffin in the early 90s to strategize on a series of initiatives in response to federal funding cuts to legal aid organizations and new restrictions on the type of cases they could perform.

 

"He is probably the most persistent, highly organized person you'll ever meet. But you never tumble to the fact that he's pressing you all the time." Wathen was a lawyer in his 20s when he first appeared before Judge Coffin at the First Circuit Court of Appeals. By then, Wathen says the judge was legendary. Known as a consummate legal craftsman, a skilled orator and writer who was endlessly prepared. But before he became a judge, Coffin was an activist, the man who along with Edmund Muskie, helped re-invigorate the Maine Democratic Party in the 1950s when Democratic candidates for higher office were few and far between. "All I know is I have spoken several times at different events over the last 40 years and I would mention Frank Coffin and invariably someone would come up to me out of the audience and say: I met Frank Coffin back in the 50's and he was the smartest person I ever met in politics."

  

"He is really one of a kind."  Robert Reich clerked for Judge Coffin in 1973. He says the judge made such an impression on him that when Reich became labor secretary during the Clinton Administration he hung the judge's portrait in his office in Washington, D.C. And he still keeps it hanging over his desk at the University of California at Berkley. Among the many memories Reich has is Judge Coffin's sense of humor. April Fool's day was always a day of amusement for both the judge and his clerks. "There was the time when we substituted a memo that we didn't really expect him to take seriously, that was kind of a rather absurdist memo. It could have been written by Monty Python. But he fooled us. Because although he knew it was a joke he made us think that he did take it seriously and then made us worry that maybe he was going to make a ruling based on our silly memo."

 

Judge Frank Coffin and his wife, Ruth, will be honored tonight at a reception at the Holiday Inn By the Bay in Portland from 5 to 7. For more of our interview with Judge Coffin click on the "listen" button below.