AUGUSTA, Maine — Sen. Matt Pouliot, R-Kennebec, is proposing a loan repayment bill for recent University of Maine School of Law, or Maine Law, graduates who decide to go into indigent legal services.
Pouliot said Maine already has programs like this for teachers and dental professionals to try to attract them here, but now it's time to expand that.
"Maine's a great state but there's no way we can meet our workforce demand without bringing some bright minds in to help," Pouliot said.
"I have no doubt this would help keep students here in Maine," Sarah Branch, a professor at Maine Law, said.
Before she started teaching, Branch took on indigent legal cases here in Maine.
"It can be a tough job but it is an incredibly rewarding job to provide those services to the people who need it," Branch told NEWS CENTER Maine in a Zoom interview.
Branch said that she has students who are passionate about providing indigent legal services, but they often can't afford to stay here. She added that she had a student who wanted to do this work, but went to another state because their student loans were forgiven there.
"When you have a Maine Law grad, when you have the talent here, when you have people who have the interest here, we need to provide them as many avenues to do this type of work to address the larger problem," Branch said.
"This bill is by no means a silver bullet but it is a step in the right direction to hopefully attract people to come to Maine and also keep them here," Pouliot added.
Recently, the pay for indigent legal defenders nearly doubled, going from $80 to $150 an hour. But the lack of attorneys to take on these cases is still a very real problem in Maine.
"I don't think that change in pay rate alone is enough to get the services that are required under the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution," Pouliot said.
There were two organizations that testified "neither for nor against" this bill, but no one testified against it. It will now go to a work session before a full Legislature vote.