We regret to report that Vincent L. McKusick, former Chief Justice of Maine and a dedicated member of The American Law Institute for 53 years, died on December 3 at the age of 93. Justice McKusick joined the Institute in 1961 and was elected to its Council in 1968, serving 40 years before taking Council Emeritus status in 2008. He also served as an Adviser for the ALI’s Restatement Third, Torts: Products Liability, Restatement Second, Property (Donative Transfers), the Federal Securities Code, and the Federal Judicial Code Revision project. He was active in many legal organizations, holding leadership positions in the ABA, the American Bar Foundation, the American Judicature Society, the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, and the Conference of Chief Judges, serving as its President in 1990-1991.
From 1952 until his appointment as Maine’s Chief Justice in 1977, Justice McKusick practiced law with the prominent Maine firm of Pierce Atwood in Portland, ME. During his years on the high court, he initiated significant improvements in the structure and operation of the courts, many involving volunteer efforts from the community. He rejoined Pierce Atwood on his retirement from the bench in 1992.
Justice McKusick received his A.B. degree from Bates College, his S.B. and S.M. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his LL.B. from Harvard Law School, where he was president of the Harvard Law Review and graduated magna cum laude. Prior to joining Pierce Atwood, he served successively as law clerk to Chief Judge Learned Hand of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and to Justice Felix Frankfurter of the United States Supreme Court. From 1943 to 1946, he served in the U.S. Army, including 14 months participating in the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Justice McKusick was the recipient of numerous awards; in 1993 he and his identical twin brother, the late world-renowned geneticist Victor McKusick, received the inaugural Maine Prize for "nationally recognized contributions to the quality of life."
Read a tribute by Derek Langhauser published in The Journal of Appellate Practice and Process.