FRYEBURG — Hastings Law Office, P.A., announces it has changed its name to Hastings Malia, recognizing the contributions of longtime partner Peter J. Malia Jr. and the continued growth, modernization, and expansion of the 166-year-old firm.

Malia joined the practice in 1997. Before that he served as an assistant attorney general for the state of Maine. He is a member of the Maine and New Hampshire Trial Lawyers Associations, and his practice areas include all types of civil litigation. He specializes in municipal law, which includes planning, zoning and land-use issues. He serves as counsel for several towns in Maine and New Hampshire. He is a certified mediator in Maine and New Hampshire, and has mediated hundreds of cases.

He is president of the Maine Association of Mediators and in 2011 he was appointed by the chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court to the Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Service Committee. The committee monitors the program that provides mediation services to courts throughout the state.

Hastings Malia also announces that Viktoriya Kovalenko joined the firm in August as a civil litigation associate. She served for three years as a law clerk to New Hampshire judges presiding in Grafton and Coos County Superior Courts.