November 18, 2024
Maine law firms are looking to a new generation of managing partners
By Alexis Wells, Mainebiz
It is an often-repeated statistic that Maine is the oldest state in the country when measured by median age of 45 and a major percentage of population over 65. Still, the real-life consequence of that fact is that a relatively large proportion of our workforce is made up of baby boomers.
As more workers move toward retirement age, the general workforce and leadership roles need replenishment. That is becoming true as three Maine law firms, including Brann Isaacson, Dentons and Preti Flaherty, bring on a younger generation to take over higher-up roles.
“The crisis we are hearing about with the rural bar, especially in Maine, is that attorneys in small towns are increasingly retiring with no one to take their place,” says attorney Stacy Stitham, who is 44 and took over as managing partner of Lewiston-based Brann & Isaacson in July.
Stitham says Brann & Isaacson is fortunate enough to have attorneys whose ages range from their 20s to 70s, with a range of energy and institutional knowledge and experience. So the time has been ripe for a leadership transition.
“We have recently added another partner in his 40s to the managerial group and have placed other junior partners in firm leadership roles,” Stitham tells Mainebiz in an email. “Personally, I feel lucky to be a part of a firm with a stratified workforce and leadership structure.”
As a leader, she says her style is to identify and encourage leadership qualities among her colleagues and provide them with opportunities to develop and deepen those qualities in an area of particular practice area.
“By way of example, some of my partners are innate marketers. Some have strong analytical skills,” says Stitham. “The firm benefits from fresh ideas and enthusiasm by identifying talent and interests and providing outlets for those talents and interests.
“As for myself, I hope to apply and hone my skills — which include formidable (some would say annoying) organizational talents. I may have missed my calling as a project manager,” she continues.
While Brann & Isaacson continues to expand its leadership team, Stitham says the crisis she hears about with the rural bar, especially in Maine, is that attorneys in small towns increasingly retire with no one to take their place. As of recently, geography has mattered in terms of the firm’s physical location.
Maine firms with brick-and-mortar locations in Portland, Lewiston, Bangor, or elsewhere competed to hire entry-level and lateral attorneys attracted by Maine’s quality of life. However, Stitham says, Brann & Isaacson also has to compete with larger out-of-state firms interested in setting up a remote satellite presence in Maine to attract or retain talent.
“There is a loss of rural practitioners as baby boomers close their offices, and fewer and fewer young law school graduates are relocating to fill their place,” says Stitham.
Brann & Isaacson, which is based in Lewiston, has a Portland office in the Old Port neighborhood.
“As someone who grew up playing on the floor of my family’s small-town practice in Dover-Foxcroft, I feel this acutely,” Stitham says, adding: “[That] has led to the existential question of how other law firms located 50, 100, or 150 miles away can serve the ongoing needs of rural communities.”