James Mark Friedman

Falmouth - James Friedman, Professor of Law Emeritus at the University of Maine School of Law, died in Falmouth, Maine, on December 15, 2022. He was 73 years old.

Jim was a graduate of Brown University and the University of Chicago School of Law. Jim joined the faculty at Maine Law in 1985 and taught at the Law School until his retirement in 2014. His areas of specialty as a law professor included American Constitutional Law, Law and Philosophy, and Labor Law. Jim was a gifted and committed law teacher who believed that legal education should encompass more than training for the legal profession. He wanted his students to be schooled in case law, but also wanted them to be critical thinkers who had a keen awareness of the history, policy choices and justice underlying the decisions made by courts. He also wanted his students to be skilled in the art of writing efficiently and effectively.

Jim served as a visiting professor at University College, Galway and as a visiting scholar at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, leading to his interest in the legal and ethical issues posed by counterterrorism. He was interested in British, Irish, Israeli and American responses to terrorist attacks. His work in this field resulted in his being offered a visiting professorship at the United States Military Academy at West Point, for which he received the Commander's Award for Public Service from the United States Army. He authored a number of articles dealing with the treatment of terrorists in custody, including an article in which he argued that the U.S. Justice Department lawyers who developed the policies justifying torture of American detainees had acted contrary to American values and in violation of governing principles espoused by the United States at the Nuremberg Trials.

Jim was an avid reader of history and had many heroes, foremost among them Presidents Lincoln and Roosevelt. He had been inspired to get involved in politics by the campaign of Robert Kennedy, and felt deeply that America would have been a more just and equal society had Robert Kennedy been elected as president. He was very proud that his daughter, Sophie, shared his passion for politics, and that she worked on several presidential campaigns.

Jim was a competitive sportsman, playing tennis, baseball and basketball for as long as he was able. Although he lived in Maine for almost all of his adult life, his sports idols were largely Midwestern. Jim grew up in Highland Park, in the northern suburbs of Chicago, and he and his dad were regular visitors to both Wrigley Field and Soldier Field. His childhood was idyllic, surrounded by a supportive and loving extended family, comprised of his parents Robert and Roslyn Friedman, his sister Jane, his grandmothers Nonnie Soph and Nonnie Es, his Aunty Marilyn and her husband Shelly Simon, and their four children Lisa, Scooter, Jon and Adam.

Jim is survived by his daughter, Sophie Friedman; Sophie's sisters, Kate Lawless and Dr. Ruth Lawless; Sophie's mother, Judge Mary Kelly; his sister, Jane Rabe and her husband Bill, their daughter, Sloane; and by his Simon cousins, and their mother Marilyn Simon.