Maine Supreme Court Appoints Karen Lovell Chair of Maine State Board of Overseers

The Maine Supreme Court has appointed Karen B. Lovell, a shareholder at Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson, to a one-year term as chair of the state Board of Overseers of the Bar.

The Board supervises the conduct of Maine attorneys and oversees the resolution of lawyer grievances, suspensions, disbarments and reprimands.

Lovell, who joined the firm in 1995, works in the firmÕs Portland office in a number of legal areas, including estate planning, trust and estate administration and probate litigation.

Lovell is a 1979 graduate of the University of Maine School of Law in Portland and received her undergraduate degree in 1970 from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

A resident of Saco, Lovell has served on numerous state and local boards, including as a board member, secretary and corporator of Sweetser Children's Services in Saco and as a member of the Maine Medical Center Planned Giving Committee. She has served on the Thornton Academy Board of Trustees since 1996 and is a past vice president of the Dyer Library/Saco Museum Board of Trustees.

Lovell also has served as chair of the City of Saco Personnel Board and as vice chair and as chair of the Saco Planning Board.

In addition, Lovell was appointed Public Administrator for York County by the Governor in 1989, and reappointed in 1993, 1997 and 2001. She was appointed by the Board of Overseers of the Bar to serve on Fee Arbitration Panel 1-A and appointed to a second term on the Panel and became Panel Chair in 1998. She was precluded by term limits from appointment to a third term.

Lovell was also appointed by the Maine Supreme Court to a three-year term on the Board of Overseers of the Bar in 1998 and was reappointed to a second term in 2001. In 2002, Lovell was appointed as a Fellow of the Maine Bar Foundation and as a corporator of Saco & Biddeford Savings Institution. She is a member of the American, Maine State, Cumberland County and York County Bar Associations and of the Maine Estate Planning Council.

Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer & Nelson is one of northern New EnglandÕs largest law firms with more than 70 attorneys in offices in Portland and Augusta, Maine and Manchester, New Hampshire. The firm provides legal services in all major subject areas, including corporate and commercial law, litigation and trials, municipal and governmental affairs, education law, construction law, employment law and tax and estate planning. Bernstein, Shur also has an active practice in bankruptcy, health law, environmental law, technology and commerce, legislative law, intellectual property, public utilities and other regulated industries. For more information, visit the Bernstein, Shur web site at www.bssn.com.

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