Small-town community makes life worthwhile for Calais lawyer

Editor’s Note: This is one in an occasional series of articles on young business leaders and their decision to live and work in Maine.

CALAIS – While quiet, small-town life may drive many restless young people out of Maine, it was exactly what drew David Mitchell back to his hometown.

Mitchell, a 38-year-old lawyer, exemplifies the type of educated person the state is hoping to retain with programs such as Opportunity Maine, which gives tax credits for college loan repayment, and Realize! Maine, a social networking organization. He decided to return to Maine when he was 25 and in the midst of a teaching career outside Detroit, Mich.

“I can recall driving to school one morning … and thinking that but for that seven-mile trip, one would rarely have to leave the immediate area of his or her residence. Each corner of each intersection consisted of a strip mall of sorts with all the necessities. … But there was very little sense of community,” Mitchell said recently in an e-mail to the BDN.

Mitchell grew up in Calais and attended boarding school at Lawrence Academy in Groton, Mass. He graduated from Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, in 1991 with a B.A. in English and political science, then stayed on for a fifth year to play hockey and earn a second bachelor’s degree in education.

After teaching and coaching soccer, hockey and baseball at private schools in Massachusetts and Michigan, Mitchell decided to return to his home state and pursue a law degree at the University of Maine School of Law. His father is a lawyer in Calais, but it was not until Mitchell graduated in 1997 that he considered joining his father’s practice.

“He has a wealth of experience to tap into, and since I graduated after him he could tap into my knowledge,” Mitchell said in a recent interview.

Mitchell & Mitchell is a general practice firm that takes on criminal defense, family law, personal injury, real estate and probate cases. In addition, Mitchell represents the Passamaquoddy Tribe.

Young lawyers who enter the field in rural Maine must be prepared to practice general law, Mitchell said. He has had plenty of opportunities to hold leadership positions and is a member of the St. Croix Chamber of Commerce, the Calais Planning Board and the board of directors of the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

The cost of health insurance is the only complaint Mitchell mentions when asked about running a small business in Maine.

“It’s expensive. I always say ‘I have it but I don’t’ because the cost of it is so high. We have health insurance we never use because the deductible is so high,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said his brother, a hemophiliac, lives in New Brunswick because the cost of health care is so much cheaper there.

Life on the Canadian border allows for plenty of cross-cultural exposure, Mitchell said, and while he might be far from any major U.S. cities, he has quick access to those in Canada. His wife, Tammy, grew up in Pennfield, New Brunswick, and Mitchell coaches two youth hockey teams in St. Stephen. Two of his children, Greg, 8, and Emily, 6, play on his teams. Mitchell also coaches baseball in Calais.

Living out of state was ideal because Mitchell was able to return to Maine to establish roots, he said. And when friends frequently pose the question of why he chose to spend his young adulthood in such a rural place, Mitchell insists “the small things” make it worthwhile, he said.

“Not having to spend hours on the road commuting to work and such simple things as being able to return to my own home daily for lunch with my wife and youngest child, Megan, are, put simply, enjoyable.”