BANGOR – An Augusta-based lawyer on Friday brought to the Penobscot County Courthouse a cherished family photo he hoped would illustrate Husson College’s argument that its proposed law school does not need to be accredited by the American Bar Association to graduate quality lawyers.

“This is a photo of the Class of 1900,” Severin Beliveau said, “the first graduating class of Maine’s first law school that held classes in Bangor at the corner of State and Exchange streets. There are 22 men in this photograph – 19 students and three teachers. My grandfather Matthew McCarthy was one of them.”

Beliveau argued on behalf of the Bangor college that is asking the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to let graduates of its proposed law school take the Maine bar exam. With one exception, only graduates of ABA-accredited law schools may take the exam immediately after graduation.

The lawyer, whose family has roots in Penobscot County, handed the framed photo to Justice Jon D. Levy, who passed it to Justice Robert W. Clifford, who handed it to Chief Justice Leigh I. Saufley.

As Beliveau launched into his argument, citing governors and members of the state’s high court who had not graduated from ABA-accredited law school, the chief justice interrupted him.

“Mr. Beliveau, there must be something wrong with the photograph,” she said. “There are no women in it.”

Beliveau’s response to the barb delivered by the state’s first female chief justice could not be heard over the laughter that filled the third-floor courtroom.

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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