For Immediate Release
July 1, 2013
Contact:
Gillian Britt, gBritt PR
207-775-2126
AUGUSTA, Maine – After 16 years of service, Calien Lewis has retired from her position as Executive Director of the Maine Bar Foundation (MBF). The Maine Bar Foundation is Maine’s only statewide nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization devoted exclusively to law-related charitable work.
Since joining MBF in 1997, Lewis has tripled the foundation’s assets. Early on, Lewis oversaw the purchase of the building in which the MBF is housed and which generates income for the non-profit. During her tenure, Lewis helped to create an endowment for legal access in rural Maine as well as new revenue streams for legal aid: the Civil Legal Services Commission Fund and The Campaign for Justice. Between 1998 and 2013, the Maine Bar Foundation distributed more than $14 million in the form of annual, discretionary and matching grants.
Barbara Raimondi, President of the Board for the MBF, stated, “Under her leadership we have been ahead of the game and a leader of the pack nationally.” Lewis has certainly left both Maine and the MBF in better shape than she had found them, but attributes all of her success to good timing and good people.
As announced at the Maine State Bar Association’s summer meeting, State Senator Roger Katz sponsored a legislative sentiment to congratulate Lewis on her retirement. Members of Maine’s Senate and House of Representatives joined to recognize Lewis’ “commitment to public service, to her state and to the Nation.”
About the Maine Bar Foundation
The Foundation receives most of its funding through the IOLTA Program it manages, which has produced more than $19.4 million dollars since 1985. The groups supported by the Maine Bar Foundation include: Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project, Legal Services for the Elderly, Maine Equal Justice Partners, Pine Tree Legal Assistance, MaineVolunteer Lawyers Project and others. The primary purpose of the Foundation is to support projects designed to improve access to justice, especially for low income and socially disadvantaged populations. The Maine Bar Foundation also supports law-related education.
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