LEWISTON – Robert Clifford didn’t go to law school to be a judge. He didn’t become mayor and, later, a state senator to sit on the bench.

“No one sets out to be a judge in our system,” Clifford told a group of about 60 people Thursday at the Lewiston Public Library. Clifford was the featured speaker at the monthly Great Falls Forum series.

Although he hadn’t planned to be a judge, Clifford was recognized at Thursday’s event by state lawmakers who presented him with a legislative sentiment honoring him as the state’s longest-serving member of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. He retired earlier this year after sitting for 23 years on the seven-member appellate court in Portland. He now is active retired, meaning he fills in on the bench in Maine’s trial courtrooms.

Clifford said he joined the judicial ranks by chance because he happened to be serving in the Maine Senate with his good friend and Maine’s eventual governor, Joseph Brennan, at the same time. In fact, Clifford was Brennan’s first judicial appointment after being sworn into office in 1979.

“That’s why I’m a judge,” Clifford said. “Not because I was a shining star.”

Clifford was reluctant to don the black robe, going so far as to withdraw his name for consideration before changing his mind.

“I think it was the right decision, but it was not easy for me,” he said.

He went on to serve as chief justice of the Maine Superior Court.

When he was later tapped for a post in the state’s highest court, Clifford called a meeting to discuss his future, inviting his mother and his brother, who was a priest.

“My mother said, ‘Why wouldn’t you take it?'” That was the end of the discussion, he said.

Clifford described the differences between the role of trial judge on the lower court and appellate judge. He likened the two to the difference between one who leads troops during a battle and one who comes on the scene afterward and shoots the wounded.

The trial judge’s motto is “often in error, never in doubt,” Clifford said, noting the often heavy caseloads and quick thinking needed on the bench.

By contrast, the more contemplative appellate judge would ask: “Did the trial judge get it close enough?” In Maine, the answer is yes 85 percent of the time. Only 15 percent of trial court cases are vacated by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, he said.

Being a judge can be a lonely job at times, he said, by necessity remaining nonpartisan and sitting outside the circles of lawyers in the community. On the bright said, Clifford said, it’s the perfect excuse to decline when hit up for a political contribution.

The most important quality a judge must possess is the ability to treat everyone with respect “and you have to listen to what they say.”

People who come before judges should leave court feeling they have had a fair hearing. “If they didn’t, we would have anarchy and chaos,” he said. “That’s the reason that our system works.”

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Retired Maine Supreme Court Justice Robert Clifford speaks at the Great Falls Forum at the Lewiston Public Library on Thursday.

Retired Maine Supreme Court Justice Robert Clifford speaks at the Great Falls Forum at the Lewiston Public Library on Thursday.