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By: Madelyn Storms ’24
This summer, I was able to participate in an Equal Justice Works Rural Legal Fellowship in Presque Isle, Maine through Pine Tree Legal Assistance. If you, like myself a mere few months ago, have never heard of Presque Isle, I’ll tell you what I have learned.
Presque Isle is located in Aroostook County, the largest county on this side of the Mississippi. Presque Isle has a lot of wildlife, and since being here, I have seen bears, moose, foxes, and a particularly hungry hawk try to eat a skunk. Presque Isle also has a potato blossom festival, and in the winter, on clear nights, you can see the northern lights.
In a lot of ways, Presque Isle has a lot, but in other ways, it is devoid. For many of the people in Aroostook County, money is scarce, and legal resources are even more rare. There’s a saying that it is expensive to be poor, and I don’t think I quite understood it until this internship. Presque Isle is the embodiment of this tragedy.
At Pine Tree, I was able to work on three different unique missions. The first thing I did was help victims of domestic violence with obtaining child custody arrangements and Protection from Abuse orders. In some ways, this felt the most familiar, after all, last summer I worked in the SVU bureau of the DA’s office. In other ways, it was a new experience, as I often had to work one-on-one with clients and even had the chance to work as a student attorney for a case and present the PFA.
I also got to work with various housing issues this summer. I never realized just how predatory housing can be for low-income and disabled people. This part of the program really shed a light on how without representation, a lot of people would go without. This summer, I was able to go to eviction court and work with people on housing. This has definitely become an area I have become much more passionate about.
This summer, I also had the chance to work on outreach. With a county the size of Connecticut, it can be hard to meet everyone’s needs. Someone who lives an hour away may not be able to come visit us, as cell service is often spotty and public transportation is nonexistent. I was in charge of creating a post in a southern town to serve as a clinic. I had to find a place to donate a room for us, make a poster for the outreach (as you can see to the right), and drive around the county to find places to put up signs. While it took a long time to complete this project, it has already been successful. I’m really proud that something I created this summer will be used for years to come.
Finally, I want to thank both the University at Buffalo School of Law Summer Public Interest Funding & Fellowship Program and Francis Letro for his generous gift to continuing my legal education. This is the second year he has generously donated a fellowship to me, and I am extremely appreciative of the opportunity he has provided for me.
Name: Madelyn Storms ’24
Fellowship: 2023 UB School of Law Public Interest Grant
Placement: Pine Tree Legal Assistance
Location: Presque Isle, Maine
One important lesson I have learned from this fellowship: “For rural communities, access to justice is an obsolete concept. Programs like Pine Tree are many people’s only ability to ever get legal representation.”
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