District Court Judge Rick E. Lawrence made Maine history Wednesday when Gov. Janet Mills swore him in as the state’s first Black high court justice.
Lawrence, a 66-year-old Portland resident, replaces Associate Justice Ellen Gorman on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. Lawrence starts his new job immediately.
In a brief ceremony in the governor’s Cabinet Room, Mills said Lawrence has a unique background for a state court justice. He’s the only Harvard Law School graduate and the only one whose parents did not go to college. He also moved directly from the District Court to the state supreme court, skipping traditional service on the Superior Court.
“Finally, he’ll be the only member of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court who went through periods of time in his youth when he and his family were turned away from restaurants, rest stops and motels…only because of the color of their skin,” Mills said.
Last month, the Maine Senate unanimously confirmed Lawrence, who has served 22 years on the District Court, serving primarily in Androscoggin, Oxford and Franklin counties.
Lawrence’s resume includes time at Pierce Atwood and working as in-house counsel for Unum before earning appointment in 2000 as the first African American to serve as a judge in Maine. He is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School.
Lawrence said he was “blessed and fortunate” to be a part of Maine history.
“I want to express my profound respect and my debt of gratitude for the generations of African Americans who preceded me and did the heavy lifting to make this historic day possible,” he said.