Legal Team
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Who is trying the case?
Lawyers who want to fix this injustice
Our Maine Beaches maintains this website, not the lawyers who are trying the case. The website was launched by volunteers. We are ordinary Mainers who learned this case would be filed, who then decided to help these attorneys win the case for all the people of Maine.
However, you should know something about the legal team. This issue has always been about the POWERFUL vs. the not-so-powerful. No “establishment” law firm would ever risk angering their well-heeled clients by taking on this case. Luckily, Maine attorneys specifically founded a new law firm so they could bring this case and win it. If necessary, this case will go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Introducing the legal team:
Sandra L. Guay of Saco is an expert on real estate, land use, and zoning laws. Sandy works with developers, builders, engineers, and other experts to guide her clients' projects from concept, to paper, to permit, and ultimately to reality. From the corner store to a kelp farm off the coast of Maine, you can see Sandy's work where individuals and businesses are finding new, innovative, and sustainable uses for the land and sea.
In memory of our friend & founding partner
John R. Coon, J.D., Ph.D.
John was a legal visionary.
By combining law and science, John was able to recast environmental problems that had long vexed communities. John brought federal and state regulators together with stakeholders, activists, and researchers. He built trust and working relationships among those who had previously been at odds.
John’s work forms the philosophical core of Archipelago. He taught us to break down siloes and view our client’s challenges in new ways. It is in this spirit that we are proud to carry on his work.
Benjamin E. Ford —- Most lawyers solve legal problems. Ben solves business problems. Now living in Portland, he spent the first part of his career honing his leadership and financial management skills. He spent the next decade as a litigator perfecting an ability to translate abstract legal concepts into concrete tools for his clients. Ben is just as sharp reading a P&L as he is reading an opponent's legal brief. He believes there is no border between business challenges and legal challenges. You cannot effectively solve one without considering the other.
Orlando E. Delogu pro se – Orlando has been a tireless champion for Maine’s coastlines. He serves as an emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Maine School of Law and has spent the last 35 years researching, teaching and arguing the law that makes up our claim. He has published more than 300 op-eds on environmental, land-use, and governmental issues of the day. He has drafted several amicus briefs with the Maine Supreme Court on the issue of Maine’s inter-tidal land. Orlando also help found the Maine Civil Liberties Union and served for two years on the board of the National ACLU.