FARMINGTON — Maine Law Admissions Director Caroline Wilshusen paid a visit to University Maine Farmington [UMF] on Monday, Feb. 13, to discuss the way in which Maine Law may benefit members of the Franklin County community. The event was free and open to the public and topics ranged from the benefits of an education in law to practicing law in a rural community.

Wilshusen is also the dean of student services and an alumnus of Maine Law, graduating with honors in 2007. After graduating, she served as a law clerk, worked with at-risk children and adolescents, and served as executive coordinator for Maine’s access to justice commission.

Before all of that, however, she was a mother of two children living in New York working in musical theater. “I stumbled into the world of alternative dispute resolution and just fell in love with it,” she said. “And so, I was there for several years and then I decided to go to law school.”

Wilshusen entered law school at the age of 42. According to her, her family ancestry stems from Lewiston.

“We have a little camp that they built many years ago up on Pleasant Pond in Caratunk, and every summer I would be there, and my heart was there,” she said. “Maine is an extraordinary state. I had two-year-old twins and I wanted to raise them here, so I came to Maine and stayed.”

In 2014, she began her role at Maine Law and has been making her rounds to all the schools in the UMaine system to encourage students interested in law to pursue an education at Maine Law.

“[Maine Law] is just a far more supportive law school community than I think many are because we’re small,” Wilshusen stated. “Nobody’s succeeding at the expense of the person next to them, they’re succeeding with the person next to them.”

Also present at the meeting was James Melcher, Professor of Political Science at UMF. Melcher stressed to many that students interested in law do not have to major specifically in political science.

“For a lot of my students in political science, they find law very appealing,” he said. “But also, it’s good for people in all kinds of different majors. You don’t have to be a political science major.”

Another aspect of her visit was to direct students in the path of practicing law in rural communities, specifically in counties such as York and Cumberland.

“There are not enough attorneys outside of Cumberland and York counties to meet the needs of the people in those communities. We have created some amazing programs to try and alleviate that crisis.”

One of the programs includes a Rural Practice Clinic in Fort Kent. According to their website, the purpose of the clinic is to bring access to legal representation and resources to rural communities.

For more information on the Rural Practice Clinic, or for more information about Maine Law in general, please visit their website at mainelaw.maine.edu.

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