With those words in the summer of 1992, prominent Bangor criminal defense lawyer and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers board member Marshall Stern signaled that better education, resources, lobbying, and a statewide voice on matters of importance should be available to Maine criminal defense lawyers and their clients. Portland criminal defense lawyer Stephen Schwartz heeded the call from his mentor, gathered several of his friends in the Bar as incorporators, including Lenny Sharon, Gail Latouf, Vilean Taggersell, and Tom Van Houten, and founded the Maine Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, becoming its first president. Steve and Lenny, our second president, were the driving forces behind the proliferation of the organization, gaining hundreds of members by traveling throughout the state, and traveling with their families to Rhode Island to obtain affiliation with the NACDL in 1993. Steve also founded and was the first editor of the professional publication Maine Defender, the newsletter of the MACDL. Maine has no public defender and the defense of those charged with crimes, be they indigent or not, falls on the shoulders of private defense lawyers. Marshall and Steve were passionate in their desire to bring the defense bar together through an organization dedicated to the needs of criminal defense lawyers and their clients. Today, MACDL meets as a group at an annual legal seminar held in June. We have published a quarterly newsletter, hold training sessions and meetings around the state assisting our members through a sharing of ideas and resources, and lobby in the Legislature on criminal defense matters. When called upon, we also provide amicus briefs to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.