2023 Forecast: Maine Law embarks on new chapters in Portland, Fort Kent

Photo / Jim Neuger Leigh Saufley is the dean of the University of Maine School of Law, the state’s only law school. She is seated in the moot court classroom of the school's soon-to-open building on Fore Street in Portland.

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By Renee Cordes

The University of Maine School of Law will ring in the new year in a new Portland home, at 100 Fore St., in the city’s Old Port.

“The plan is that the first classes for Maine Law and the [Maine] MBA program will happen on Jan. 17,” Maine Law Dean Leigh Saufley said in mid-December as final preparations were going on.

“Over these next three weeks,” she said, “the final construction is being completed, the punch lists are being reviewed, and we hope that there will be a smooth opening for our students at the start of the spring semester.”

The school’s downtown move will put it under the same roof as the other parts of the University of Maine System.

“The capacity that this building will give all of us to work together is very exciting,” Saufley says. She notes that while supply-chain issues mean the building will probably not be at its full technological capacity until late spring, advantages include bright, clean classrooms equipped with whiteboards, conference rooms and a ground-floor, 100-capacity classroom that can be converted into a mock courtroom or hearing room for student practice.

This month also marks a new chapter for Maine Law in Fort Kent, with the opening of a Rural Practice Clinic for students to represent clients in real cases while living on campus at the University of Maine at Fort Kent.

Back in Portland, Maine Law is in early-stage talks with the Graduate School of Business about the opening of a new business law clinic, Saufley says.

“Every opportunity to see how the law works in reality is a wonderful opportunity for law students, who then start thinking about how they will design their own careers and how they can change those parts of the world they really want to change,” she says.