Evan Cooper ’15 spent summer 2014 helping Pine Tree Legal provide legal aid to those who couldn’t afford it.

Evan Cooper ’15 is shown at Pine Tree Legal in Lewiston, where he worked during summer 2014. (Sarah Crosby/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Name: Evan Cooper

Hometown: Farmington, Conn.

Major:Ìý±Ê´Ç±ô¾±³Ù¾±³¦²õ

Internship Sponsor: Harward Center for Community Partnerships

1. What is Pine Tree Legal?

Pine Tree Legal is a nonprofit law firm that provides legal aid to low-income Maine community members. They handle a range of issues around the state, but the Lewiston office largely focuses on housing and tenant rights, though other legal issues are also addressed.

2. What are your responsibilities?

One thing I help with is client intake, the first client interview. I get their basic information as well as identify relevant facts about the case and I ask them to provide us their paperwork. I also do client calls — I return messages and answer questions.

Another responsibility I have is conducting basic casework, working with the paralegal in the office. For example, we explain the small-claims process to clients, so they can settle security deposit disagreements in court. We also give clients educational materials including things like templates for letters they can use to request their security deposit back.

3. Could you walk me through a small case?

For eviction cases we would first check if they have a lease — the law differs in how it treats leased tenants and tenants-at-will. A landlord has to give tenants-at-will 30 days of notice before evicting them unless they have not paid their rent, in which case it’s seven days’ notice. After the notice period is up, the landlord can bring a forcible entry and unlawful detainer action against them, which goes to a hearing in District Court.

After asking about the lease we check if they’re current on rent. Late payment’s a common reason for eviction, but sometimes people are evicted despite being current on rent. We have to find out why the tenant is being evicted in order to help defend them in court. The lawyers also carefully review the notice to quit served on them by their landlord to ensure that it adheres to the statutes.

4. How did you get involved?

I’ve taken constitutional law classes at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ with politics professor Stephen Engel, which really sparked my interest in the court system. And a friend of mine worked with Pine Tree during the fall semester of 2013 and really loved it, so she put me in touch with them.

5. How does this relate to your career plans?

I took those constitutional law courses that focused on case law in the U.S. Supreme Court, so this is drastically different in scale! I’m on the litigating side of much smaller cases. It’s still interesting: The courts are a fascinating aspect of the U.S. political system. I hoped this would help me decide if I wanted to pursue law school, and I think that it has, this is something I want to continue in the future.

7.ÌýAny thoughts on how your liberal arts education impacted your experience?

I believe that a liberal arts education tends to help broaden your understanding of other people and the world. It has fostered my desire to get involved with the Lewiston community and work toward the rights of low-income families in Maine, who often have difficult legal situations with their landlords and other matters relating to their lack of resources. They are held back by aspects of the law that prevent them from having as good a chance as other people.

There are few legal assistance resources available for such people. Pine Tree is one of a small group of organizations in Maine available to people who can’t afford attorneys for civil matters. An attorney is provided for criminal matters when jail time is possible, but the state doesn’t have to assist in civil disputes — that’s where Pine Tree Legal comes in.

8.ÌýDo you have any concluding thoughts you’d like to share?

The internship has been a great experience so far. It’s broadened my views of the legal field and fostered my enthusiasm for public interest law.

Philip Isaacson ’47, photographed outside his Lewiston law office in 1993 by Phyllis Graber Jensen.

The Portland Press Herald and Lewiston Sun Journal each report and comment on the death of lawyer, art critic and author Phillip Isaacson ’47.

Isaacson, who earned an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in 1997 and Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Bowdoin in 1983, died June 20 at age 89.

From Portland Press Herald art critic : “Phil loved culture. But to him, culture was people and not just the fancy frosting on some uninteresting cake. He was a worldly man who never forgot where his home was.”

From the Sun Journal‘s : “The easy thing to do would be to remark that a local lawyer has passed away, yet Isaacson was so much more than a partner at Isaacson & Raymond. He was a prolific photographer, an author, a supporter of the arts and a newspaper columnist. He was named Maine’s Most Cultured Man by Maine Times.”

Much of the praise in a Portland Press Herald story by longtime arts reporter is for Isaacson’s spare, direct writing style, both in his art reviews for the Press Herald over nearly 50 years and in his books, including his introduction to architecture for children, Round Buildings, Square Buildings, & Buildings That Wiggle Like a Fish.

Here’s a sample from for the Press Herald, on May 12, of an exhibition by artist Jim Marshall, whose works of sculpture are derived from simple paper bags:

“A good building can serve the world in diverse ways and, as James Marshall advises, so can a paper bag. I cannot speak on the aesthetics of paper bags other than to say that the pleasure of the certainty of its form and its functional assurance make disposing of one a reflective experience. I hate to throw one away. In their best iterations, paper bags are among the most perfectly considered objects that commerce offers us…. Paper allows us to select almost any level of utility we wish it to have. It is the most compliant of materials and does not resist intelligent modification. It has a private language as does, say, the Brooklyn Bridge or the Western Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem or the Pyramids at Giza. Each speaks of strength and I easily include paper among them. Like them it is a material for the ages.”

Below is an audio slide show featuring Isaacson talking about Hathorn Hall during a Reunion walking tour of campus in 2011:

In her , Demleitner noted that while “female attorneys, female judges [and] female prosecutors have truly become a staple in our courtrooms and in the boardrooms… we still see women underrepresented at the highest echelons of the legal profession. The legal profession is now more unequal than engineering and nonprofessional jobs for women. Curious isn’t it for a profession charged with protecting fairness and equality?”

The event at the Nassau County Supreme Court was co-sponsored by the Nassau County Judicial Committee on Women in the Courts and the Nassau County Bar Association Lawyer Assistance Program Committee.  Demleitner was honored for her commitment to justice, education and equality.

Lee spoke about the massive gaps in the information that’s needed to predict the extent and trajectory of the spill and accurately conduct any kind of natural resource damage assessments.

Lee told the that “we are behind the curve in scientific knowledge of the ocean ecosystems and the species that live there and support our economy. We are playing catch-up. We are having on-the-job training in the worst of jobs.”

Lee was among panelists from academia, government, private industry and environmental groups who spoke before a subcommittee of the House Committee on Natural Resources. The experts each addressed the oil spill in the context of “Ocean Science and Data Limits in a Time of Crisis: Do NOAA and the Fish and Wildlife Service Have the Resources to Respond?”

Lee, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ biology major who earned a master’s in civil engineering from MIT and J.D. from Yale, is executive vice president of and is the author of

“The short answers…are that the resource needs are substantial and immediate. The data gaps are large. The amount of resources that have been brought to bear to consider the impacts of the oil spill in the marine environment, especially the subsurface environment, are inadequate to the task at hand.

“The paucity of data…derives from the human frailty of us all.”

“The reason for this is not for lack of interest on the part of the agencies, NOAA and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; it is for lack of technical and human resources. The paucity of data is created by financial constraints. It also derives from the human frailty of us all, whether we are members of the public, work for government or are employed by the private sector.

“Humans are not well-suited to understand the importance of what they cannot see and feel within their personal spheres, even if the threats are large and real. The world beneath the surface of the ocean is beyond our view. Its importance has not been recognized in the way that it should have been by all of us.

“For these reasons, we are behind the curve in scientific knowledge of the ocean ecosystems and the species that live there and support our economy. The agencies tasked with studying natural resource injuries and restoring injuries when they happen do not have procedures and integrated approaches to address subsurface spills involving the deep-sea environment.

“The law fails us as a mechanism for truly meaningful reparation for the sea.”

“Measured by environmental injury and economic losses — what we in the trade call lost human uses — this is the largest natural resource damage case that this country has ever seen and, I hope, the world will not see one again. Damages are in the billions.

“We are off-page and out of the book. With an ongoing spill of this size and severity, the law fails us as a mechanism for truly meaningful reparation for the sea, the marine ecosystem and the species that are a part of it, and the Gulf Coast economy supported by it. The law cannot achieve a compensation to make the public truly whole. The fundamentals of science are the only real means to achieve an outcome for this spill and to ensure that others do not ever place our regional economies and ecosystems supported by them in danger.”

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A higher-education reporter recently posed a question to a listserv for college magazine editors. Had we noticed a change in the tone of class notes during the recession?

While ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ class notes are freewheeling (you all can say almost anything as long as it doesn’t frighten the horses), the self-selected content may not be the best barometer of Bobcat Nation. Even so, I asked class secretary Katie Tibbetts Morello ’91, who produced a 6,300-word class letter last spring, what she thought. She was struck by how many classmates have made significant life changes “to do something that they enjoy. It sounds like our alums are willing to be flexible to find happiness.”

Reunion is another venue where you can gauge alumni attitudes, though it’s like testing New England’s mood during a Sox game at Fenway: Most everyone is on the ecstatic side.

Ebullience aside, it’s worth mentioning a pair of Reunion class discussions this year — two days and 25 years apart — that were both introspective and direct in addressing how we face good and bad times. On Friday, the Class of 1959 talked about “Success Redefined.” Peggy Montgomery ’59 summed up the class mood by quoting the Rev. Forrest Church of the Unitarian Church of All Souls in New York City. “Want what you have; do what you can; and be who you are,” wrote the author and theologian.

Speaking to his classmates in Keck Classroom, Jack Keigwin ’59 said, “I don’t need to talk to you about being relevant. All of you are involved in something important beyond yourself. Discussing relevancy is irrelevant.” That line drew a laugh.

For Burton Harris ’59, a turning point came in the 1990s. He was enjoying his corporate law work but one day he realized that “Boston lawyer” had become his sole identity. “It was time to get out,” he said. So he enrolled in the North Bennet Street School to chase a passion: woodworking.

“All of you are involved in something important beyond yourself,” Keigwin said.

The next morning, classmates from 1984 shared “Stories of Change” from their midlife perspectives. Chris Lynch ’84 worked on Wall Street, where every day, 5:30 a.m. to 10:30 p.m, was a “fight to the death — and I loved it.” One evening his young daughter, seeing Dad at home for once, asked, “Are you here for a sleepover?” Chris and his family have since decamped to Maine for a new career in luxury real estate.

Sarah Hammond Creighton ’84 offered this thought: “You can have it all but not at the same time.” The comment prompted Heidi Lovett ’84 to talk about leaving Florida for Washington, D.C., to take a federal fisheries management position that she really wanted. What she lost was a community she loved. “I helped to start a farmer’s market there,” she said. “It was hard to leave.”

Burton Harris circled back to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and back in time. He posed a question that any reader might consider. “In our hearts,” he asked, “do we still have the feeling of being a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ freshman and willing to try something new?”

By H. Jay Burns, Editor

In the runup to President Obama’s Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor, NPR’s Nina Totenberg mentions a few longshots, including Nora Demleitner ’90, dean of Hofstra Law School and former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College seniors and alumni who applied to law schools for matriculation in autumn 2007 enjoyed a 74 percent acceptance rate, vs. the national average of 66 percent.

Of 58 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ applicants to American Bar Association-approved law schools, 43 were accepted into one or more programs, or 74 percent. Nationally, 55,547 of 84,021 applicants were accepted into one or more schools, for the 66 percent rate.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ law applicants who applied for 2007 programs enjoyed solid success overall. From a selection of top U.S. law schools, at least two ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ applicants were accepted at each of the following: Columbia, New York University, the University of Pennsylvania, University of California at Berkeley, University of Michigan, University of Virginia, Duke, Northwestern, Georgetown, University of Texas and George Washington.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ applicants also produced Law School Admission Test scores higher than the national average. The Law School Admissions Council reported that the national average of all applicants’ LSAT scores to ABA-approved schools was 152.8 on a scale of 120-180.

In contrast, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ seniors and alumni averaged 158.1.

Lena Sene ’00 is among 14 White House Fellows appointed for 2006-07, the White House recently announced.

Considered to be the most competitive and prestigious U.S. public leadership program, offer exceptional young men and women first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the federal government. For 2006-07, fellows come from the fields of medicine, law, finance, education and state government. Additionally, three branches of the military are represented.

Following a week of placement interviews in July, fellows officially begin their work on Sept. 1.

“I am truly honored to have been given this unique opportunity to gain first-hand knowledge of the decision-making process at the highest levels of government,” Sene said. “I hope that this experience will help me maximize the impact I can have in both the public and private sectors.”An economics major at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ who received the Dana Scholarship and Arata Scholarship, Sene is an investment representative at Lehman Brothers in New York City, responsible for advising entrepreneurs and CEOs of publicly traded companies on a full range of investment strategies.

Her prior position was as a private banker at JPMorgan Chase, where she founded the Global Analyst Forum, an initiative that created a worldwide exchange of best practices in the private bank. She was selected as the sole recipient of the annual JPMorgan Rising Star Award for the Annual Women’s Bond Club Merit Award Dinner in 2003.

She is a founding member of Network 20/20, a nonprofit giving young leaders from different fields opportunities to engage in substantive debate on foreign policy issues at home and in strategic countries abroad. She led Network 20/20 delegations to Turkey and Poland and briefed congressional staffers on major findings and policy recommendations.

The White House Fellows Program offers men and women first-hand experience working at the highest levels of the federal government. Fellows typically spend one year working as full-time, paid special assistants to senior White House staff, cabinet secretaries and other top-ranking government officials. Fellows also participate in an education program consisting of roundtable discussions with public- and private-sector leaders and trips to study U.S. policy in action domestically and abroad.

The White House Fellows Program is highly competitive with around 1,000 applications received each year. Fellows are chosen based on remarkable professional achievement, evidence of leadership skills, a strong commitment to public service and the knowledge and skills necessary to contribute successfully at the highest levels of the federal government.

Meanwhile, 84 percent of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ seniors or graduates who applied to programs in law were accepted, compared with a national average of 57 percent — this despite a 20 percent increase nationally from two years ago in the number of applicants to such programs, according to statistics from the Law School Admission Council.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students are typically accepted into graduate programs in law and the health professions at a rate markedly higher than the national average. This speaks to both the quality of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and the way ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ prepares students for life after graduation.

In the case of pre-health students, the college’s medical studies program helps students satisfy medical school requirements by, for instance, guiding students with their course selection and helping set up job-shadowing opportunities.

“We are always focused on the individual and her or his specific situation and goals,” says Lee Abrahamsen, associate professor of biology and biochemistry and the chair of the medical studies program. “Advice and strategies that are right for one student might be way off base for another. We don’t assume that one pre-med is like another.”

Of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ seniors or alumni who applied to 2003 post-graduate programs at allopathic or osteopathic medical school, 13 of 17 applicants were accepted, or 76 percent. For applicants to other health-care programs, such as dentistry, nursing and veterinary medicine, all 16 of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students who applied were accepted last year.

Nationally, in 2003, 17,539 of 34,786 applicants to allopathic medical schools were accepted, or about 50 percent, according to information from the American Association of Medical Colleges.

Equivalent information for osteopathic schools wasn’t available, but for the 2001-02 academic year, according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, 3,043 of 6,898 applicants were enrolled in osteopathic schools, or about 44 percent. (Note that these applicants were actually enrolled, as opposed to accepted; not all accepted applicants will matriculate.)

“Applying to health professional programs requires strategy as well as brains,” Abrahamsen says. “A student unlikely to be accepted one year — because she or he hasn’t done much shadowing, for example — might do the shadowing and be a very competitive candidate the next year. There are many steps in presenting a strong application, and we can help students line them up.”

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ in the mid-1990s instituted a pre-health advising system that kicks in during the first year. The medical studies committee and the Office of Career Services provide assistance across a wide spectrum, including personal advising, letters of recommendation and assistance with applications and interviews, and job-shadowing and internship opportunities.

The college even maintains an “internship network” of regional professionals — including not only physicians but dentists, veterinarians, nurse practitioners and nurse midwives, physical therapists and so on — with whom students can set up shadowing or internship experiences.

In law, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ applicants also attained higher Law School Admission Test scores and grade-point averages than the national average. Moreover, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students and alumni were accepted to the top tier of law schools including Harvard, Michigan, Cornell, NYU and Duke.