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Thompson & Bowie, LLP
Three Canal Plaza
P.O. Box 4630
Portland, ME 04112-4630
Phone: (207) 774-2500
Fax: (207) 774-3591
Email: law@thompsonbowie.com
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Attorneys |
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EDWARD R. BENJAMIN, JR.
BORN:
Phoenixville, Pennsylvania EDUCATION:
University of New Hampshire, B.A. cum laude 1981; University of Maine School of Law, J.D. 1984; Board of Editors, Maine Law Review BAR ADMISSIONS:
Maine 1984; U.S. District Court, District of Maine 1984; U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, First Circuit 1988; Passamaquoddy Tribal Court 1993; U.S. Supreme Court 1999 PRACTICE AREAS:
Civil Litigation
Civil Rights Defense
Defense of Governmental Entities and Governmental Employees
Municipal/Public Official Liability
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ebenjamin@thompsonbowie.com
"In civil rights litigation each decision plays some role in shaping the law that governs the conduct of government officials. But while lawyers must be conscious of the danger of paralyzing necessary governmental action by contentious litigation, we must be governed by our obligations to that individual client, rather than the macro result applicable to governmental entities generally. Representing governmental officials as individual clients serves to remind us that we are still a government of people." |
MEMBERSHIPS: | | Maine State Bar Association; Cumberland County Bar Association; Defense Research Institute |
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BIO:
Ed is a partner at Thompson & Bowie, LLP who specializes in civil rights litigation, especially the defense of police officers sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. His practice also includes the defense of claims brought under other federal laws including the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title VII (employment cases, including sexual harassment claims), and Title IX (claims against schools, including student sexual harassment and/or violence claims). For more than eighteen years, Ed has served as defense counsel to a municipal self-insured risk pool comprising more than four hundred Maine towns and cities. Ed has also been retained by county government and the State of Maine to defend employees of those entities charged with civil rights violations.
Ed’s practice has made him one of the best known attorneys in Maine in the area of constitutional rights litigation. He defended the first case in the United States in which a plaintiff sought to apply the newly enacted Americans with Disabilities Act to the mistaken arrest of a disabled person as a suspected drunk driver. Ed has also successfully defended federal suits alleging the unconstitutional use of deadly force by police. Ed has been instrumental in helping to shape the law under §1983 and the Maine Tort Claims Act in Maine's state and federal courts. He also is an experienced appellate lawyer, having defended numerous appeals before the Maine Supreme Court, the First Circuit Court of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court.
In recognition of his experience and expertise in the area of municipal and civil rights law, Ed has been invited to appear as the featured speaker at the annual meetings of both the Maine Town and City Manager’s Association and the Maine Chiefs of Police. Ed has also been honored with the Civilian Recognition Award by the Maine Association of Police in recognition of his years spent defending police officers sued for alleged civil rights violations in the performance of their duties. In addition, Ed has published numerous articles in The Townsman, a periodical for Maine’s municipal officials, and has been a featured speaker at the Annual Convention of the Maine Municipal Association. |
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