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Pittsfield Law Student Named 1st Recipient of Vafiades Scholarship

August 2, 2004

University of Maine School of Law student Matthew Stein of Pittsfield, has been named the first recipient of a scholarship in memory of the late Bangor attorney, Lewis V. Vafiades.

Stein will be known as the Lewis V. Vafiades Scholar while attending the Maine School of Law in Portland. The scholarship, with an initial endowment of $188,000, was established to provide tuition scholarships to exceptional Maine students, preferably residents of northern Maine. Fund raising to increase the size of the endowment continues.

"It's a great honor," said Stein, who will enter his second year at Maine Law this September, "and one that will be a tremendous help to me." Stein, who has financed his own education, is a 1993 graduate of Maine Central Institute, and a 2003 graduate of the University of Maine in Orono. He worked in a local sporting goods store and began his studies at Orono as a part-time student. Stein is the son of Chris and Anne Stein of Pittsfield.

"Many senior attorneys around Maine and other friends of Lew's responded generously to help us establish this scholarship fund," said Roger A. Putnam of the Portland law firm of Verrill & Dana, and an attorney who played an active role in the establishment of the fund. "Our congratulations go out to Matthew as the first Vafiades Scholar at Maine's Law School."

Vafiades, who for nearly 50 years practiced law with distinction in his hometown of Bangor, often was cited as one of Maine's most respected attorneys. An editorial, published in the Bangor Daily News shortly after his death in 2001, noted, "His long career, his contributions to the Maine Bar and to the community showed what was possible to achieve, whether in the countless instances of informal help for countless friends and acquaintances, in helping to bring legal services to the poor or in his deft, intelligent and understated way of winning the cases few thought winnable. Bangor will miss the ability, dignity and compassion of this remarkable man."

Vafiades, a graduate of Bangor High, Bowdoin and Boston University School of Law, served on Maine Law's Board of Visitors and on the planning committee for the school's recently completed capital campaign.

Maine Law supporters recently completed the $3 million "Foundations for the Future" campaign. The campaign, the largest fund-raising effort in the Maine School of Law's 40-year history, was launched to increase the number of endowed scholarships; expand faculty research opportunities; refurbish the Garbrecht Law Library; and improve the School's Cumberland Legal Aid Clinic, which provides legal services to thousands of economically disadvantaged Mainers. Fund raising continues for the Vafiades Scholarship. Former U.S. Senator William S. Cohen serves as honorary chair of the scholarship campaign. Committee members include Charles H. Abbott, Eugene C. Coughlin, Susan R. Kominsky, Ralph I. Lancaster, Malcolm L. Lyons, former Governor John R. McKernan, Roger A. Putnam, Gerald S. Rudman, Warren M. Silver, and Wakine G. Tanous.

The Maine School of Law is Maine's only law school and serves over 270 students a year. Maine residents make up more than 65 percent of each entering class. Maine Law faculty drafted the Maine Probate Code, Maine Criminal and Civil Rules, and the Maine Criminal Code, and are nationally and internationally known in their disciplines. Among the Law School's alumni are four recent Maine governors, three Maine Attorneys General, and two U.S. Congressmen. Hundreds of Maine Law graduates serve their communities through volunteer service and as town leaders. The school is an administrative unit of the University of Southern Maine.

For more information, contact: School of Law Dean Colleen Khoury at (207) 780-4344, email: ckhoury@usm.maine.edu; or John Gundersdorf, Director of Development and Alumni Relations, School of Law, (207) 780-4521, email: johng@usm.maine.edu.

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