LeMay new executive director
Legal Services of North Dakota
moving forward following
year of transition
By Andrea Winkjer Collin
After a year of transition, North Dakota’s only civil legal services
program is moving ahead with a new permanent executive director,
staff additions and reorganization. Rich LeMay became the executive
director of Legal Services of North Dakota (LSND) on November 17,
having served as interim executive director since the unexpected death
of longtime executive director Jim Fitzsimmons last March.
Like his predecessor, LeMay has also dedicated his legal career to
public interest law. He graduated from the University of North Dakota
School of Law in 1988 and began working as a staff attorney in the
Minot office of Legal Assistance of North Dakota in 1989. When his
office merged with North Dakota Legal Services in 2004 to become
Legal Services North Dakota, LeMay became the litigation director, a
position he held until being appointed interim director last year.
For many years, LeMay said people contacted LSND because its
services are free. “Now we get calls from people who have talked
to every lawyer in their area and can’t find anyone to take their
case. North Dakota definitely needs more lawyers.”
Roughly 8,000 applications for assistance are received by LSND
each year, and staff are able to provide at least some assistance
in about two-thirds of the requests. Applications are accepted
through toll-free telephone lines, the website at www.legalassist.
org, and at multiple outreach sites throughout North Dakota.
LSND is governed by a 12-member board of directors, which
includes eight North Dakota attorneys. The president is Dickinson
lawyer Gary Ramsey, who has served on the board for 20 years.
“I didn’t think I would spend my entire career here,” said LeMay,
reflecting on his 26 years in the office. “I had a five-year plan when I
started. Then 10 years passed and I was still here. This type of work gets
in your blood.”
LeMay has represented clients in family law, landlord-tenant, public
benefits, consumer and Social Security disability cases. He has argued
25 cased before the North Dakota Supreme Court and has appeared
as co-counsel in five others. He was responsible for establishing the
centralized telephone intake system, and supervised the development of
the internet-based application for services, and the first website.
With a staff of 26, including 11 lawyers, and permanent offices in
Bismarck, Minot, Fargo, Belcourt and New Town, LeMay considers
LSND one of the best providers of its kind in the nation.
“I am a little biased, but we offer services to our clients that others don’t.
With North Dakota being such a large rural state, access is one of the
greatest challenges for residents in need of legal services. And, this is
not only for the services of our office. There is an access challenge for
all North Dakotans in general to find attorneys to represent them.”
12
THE GAVEL
Rich LeMay, the executive director of Legal Services North
Dakota.