A Conversation with Maine Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill ’79
Amy Dieterich ’02, an attorney in Lewiston, Maine, spoke with Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill '79 about her path from Bryn Mawr to the highest judicial office in the state of Maine.
WHAT LED YOU TO BRYN MAWR?
I was looking for a high-quality and competitive school. I had gone to high school in Concord, Mass., which was sort of the heart of preppy land. I didn’t fit in very well. There was another woman in my town who had gone to Bryn Mawr, and she was really smart and very different. And that’s what inspired me to look at it. When I visited, I felt like there was room for everyone there—you didn’t have to fit a mold.
WHAT DID YOU MAJOR IN?
I majored in history, focusing on very nontraditional courses, especially for the period. I took mostly Russian history, but I also took a lot of African American history.
Many years later, when I was director of the [University of Maine School of Law] clinic, I went to Russia on a rule of law exchange. When you learn a language like Russian, the first thing you learn is the alphabet. We were standing in the airport in St. Petersburg trying to find our flights, and somebody said, “I wonder where our gate is?” And I said, “Well, it’s right there.” So, it did stand me in good stead all those years later.
DID YOU PARTICIPATE IN ANY CLUBS OR ACTIVITIES?
No. I worked a lot of hours every week to support myself: in the town of Bryn Mawr as a short order cook, then at The Coop in Haverford and in Ardmore at a place that did phone surveys. At Haverford I worked as a cashier and [my boss] needed a cook. And I said, “I can do it,” but he refused to hire women as cooks. I persuaded him and was the first woman to be a cook there. He paid the cooks more than the cashiers.
ARE THERE ANY LESSONS FROM BRYN MAWR THAT HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO YOUR PROFESSIONAL GROWTH?
I came from a background where I had not been given any limit on expectations. I was brought up in a family with two girls and a boy, and we were expected to do the same things. There was no differentiation.
And then I came to Bryn Mawr, and we were treated like adults. You were expected to take responsibility for your own actions, and achievement was expected. As a history major, by the end of your junior or senior year, [your professors are] treating you as historians. You aren’t, but that’s how you are treated. And I think that matters.
WHAT DREW YOU TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE SCHOOL OF LAW?
My family had summered in Maine since the early 1900s. By the time I finished college, my mother had moved up to Maine full-time, and my sister had gone to the University of Maine and lived in Maine as well, so my family center had shifted. At the time, Maine Law was pretty competitive and incredibly cheap.
After law school, I clerked for Bob Clifford, who was then Chief Justice of the Superior Court, in Auburn, Maine. After that I went to Berman & Simmons in Lewiston [as a trial lawyer], the same community you practice in.
Chief Justice Valerie Stanfill"You don't have to follow anyone else's path, but know when to say yes and when to say no."
AND WHAT DREW YOU TO TEACHING?
I always enjoyed working with students. For the year before law school, I was a full-time substitute teacher in Maine. I later worked with the Lewiston High School Mock Trial Team.
I taught trial practice and clinical practice at the [University of Maine] Law School. I came in having tried
a lot of cases, but so much of it is almost instinct. You don’t know why you do what you do to some extent. And then you try to figure that out so that you can teach somebody how to do a cross-examination. When you teach, you are always going to be challenged: why or how? You learn a lot.
AFTER TEACHING AT MAINE LAW FOR SEVERAL YEARS, YOU MOVED OVER TO THE JUDICIARY IN 2006. WHY?
I had to have another chapter. In my career, the changes I’ve made have not generally been planned. I’ve leapt without a landing in a lot of instances. As much as I enjoyed teaching, it wasn’t a good forever fit for me. I was interim director of the law school’s Legal Aid Clinic, and the new full-time director we hired was on the governor’s judicial selection committee. She asked what I was going to do once I left the law school. I said I didn’t know, and she said, “You should really apply to be a judge.” So I did.
IN 2021, YOU BECAME THE SECOND WOMAN EVER APPOINTED CHIEF JUSTICE OF THE MAINE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT. WHAT’S THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING WOMEN SERVE IN THE JUDICIARY?
It’s important to have a diverse judiciary at every level. We all bring different experiences when we decide cases. Even in a state like Maine that’s not as diverse as many states, out of the seven members of the court, we have two women and a Black man. It’s important to bring different points of view to bear, especially when making decisions by committee.
MY SON THINKS THAT ONLY WOMEN CAN BE LAWYERS BECAUSE I’M
THE ONLY ONE HE KNOWS. I OFTEN REFLECT ON THAT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT REPRESENTATION.
I remember many years ago, Governor Janet Mills shared that, when she was the district attorney, she had young girls playing Barbie in the car. And somebody asked, “So where’s Barbie going? Shopping?” And her stepdaughter said,
“No, she’s off to the Democratic Committee Convention.” Because that’s what moms do.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE BRYN MAWR GRADUATES WHO ASPIRE TO CAREERS IN LAW?
Know when to say yes. You don’t have to follow anyone else’s path, but know when to say yes and when to say no.