Pierce Atwood Recognizes Attorney and Staff Members at 10th Annual Pro Bono & Community Service Award Ceremony

In its 10th annual pro bono and community service award ceremony, Pierce Atwood is pleased to have recognized attorneys and staff who personify the firm’s culture of giving back to the community through pro bono and community service efforts.  This year’s award recipients are:

Lancaster Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award:  Presented to the attorney who contributed the highest number of pro bono hours in the past year, the 2023 Lancaster award was presented to Boston real estate and land use attorney Daniel Bailey for providing nearly 150 hours of pro bono service assisting Hale Education, a nonprofit organization providing educational and recreational opportunities on 1100+ acres of forests, ponds, and meadows in Westwood and Dover, Mass. Dan devoted considerable time helping to draft a conservation restriction that will allow Hale to continue its mission while preserving in perpetuity its 900 acres of open land.

McKusick Community Impact Award: Named for the late Vincent Lee McKusick, former Chief Justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, and Pierce Atwood friend and lawyer for more than 25 years, this award recognizes one attorney and one staff member who have made, “a significant, positive impact through pro bono and/or community service in the communities in which they live or work.” This year’s winners are:

• Cameron Goodwin, a litigation attorney based in the Portland office, for providing nearly 90 hours of pro bono service in seven different pro bono matters through the Maine Volunteer Lawyers Project, Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP), Pierce Atwood’s Racial Justice Initiative, and for providing ongoing legal support to an individual asylum client navigating state benefits.
• Heidi Grant, a Portland, Maine-based legal assistant, for her ongoing work coordinating the firm’s teams of volunteers for Junior Achievement of Maine’s “Economics for Success” program at Gorham (Maine) Middle School. Heidi also teaches evening classes to English language learners at Portland Adult Education. 

Scribner Firm Impact Award: Named for longtime former partner Fred Scribner, whose legacy endures through the firm’s commitment to the community, its employees, and the law, this award is given to one attorney and one staff member who work to keep pro bono and community service top-of-mind in the firm. This year’s winners are:

• Kellie MacDonald, an immigration attorney in the Portland office, for supporting firm colleagues in pro bono immigration matters, and for providing immigration support for her own pro bono clients. Kellie recently achieved an extraordinary positive result in immigration court for a client who fled political persecution in Rwanda.
• Abigail Dyer, marketing coordinator, provides tireless, exemplary behind-the-scenes work for the many events hosted by the firm, our clients, and our community partners. She is also the engine behind our annual Pro Bono & Community Service Awards event, planning and implementing this multi-office event.

Our commitment to the communities we serve has become a lasting, continuous thread, woven deeply into the fabric of Pierce Atwood.  That fabric now stretches across seven East Coast offices, where in the past year, we provided more than 1500 hours of pro bono legal services to 54 organizations, and nearly 3200 volunteer hours of community service.  For more information about the firm’s commitment to the community, please click here to read our complete 2023 pro bono and community service report or visit the pro bono pages of our website.