Brenda M. Buchanan
Brenda M. Buchanan is a 1980 graduate of Northeastern University, where she earned a degree in journalism, and a 1990 graduate of the University of Maine School of Law. At Warren, Currier & Buchanan, she practices in the areas of real estate, zoning and land use, small business and non-profit organizations, domestic partnership planning for individuals and same-sex couples, and probate court matters.
Brenda’s real estate practice frequently involves working with clients to remedy past conveyancing errors and advising clients and other attorneys about boundary and easement issues, including conservation easements. She has considerable experience with the real estate and land use issues particular to Portland’s Casco Bay islands, where she lived for more than a decade. Brenda also works on permitting issues with municipal planning and zoning boards, the Maine Department of Environmental Protection and other regulatory agencies. She is an agent for Old Republic Title Insurance Company, Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation and Ticor Title Insurance Company.
In her work with business owners, Brenda helps her clients form appropriate entities, negotiate contracts and obtain financing. She also advises non-profit organizations, including condominium and homeowners’ associations, as well as several area land trusts.
Brenda’s domestic partnership planning practice focuses on the specific needs of same- and opposite-sex unmarried couples. She works with individuals and couples to prepare appropriate wills, financial powers of attorney, health care directives and domestic partnership agreements. Since the Maine Supreme Judicial Court decided in 2007 that unmarried couples may jointly petition to adopt, Brenda has been busy with adoption cases in numerous Maine counties.
For the past twenty years Brenda has been involved in various capacities with the Maine Civil Liberties Union. Brenda worked at MCLU throughout law school and became a member of the Board of Directors after graduation. She was MCLU’s lead attorney on a collaborative effort with the Maine Equal Justice Project to improve due process protections for those involved in child protective cases brought by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services. In 2005, the MCLU honored Brenda with its Justice Louis Scolnik Award.
Brenda currently is a member of the Advisory Board of the Oceanside Conservation Trust of Casco Bay (OCT), a land trust that works to conserve land on the islands of Casco Bay. She also is a member of the Steering Committee of the Portland North Land Trust Collaborative, a joint project of OCT, the Falmouth Land Trust and the Chebeague and Cumberland Land Trust that aims to strengthen land conservation in the region by coordinating and integrating the goals of the individual land trusts. During her 12 years as a resident of Peaks Island, Brenda was an active member of the Peaks Island Land Preserve. She also has been a member of the Advisory Committee of the Peaks Island Fund of the Maine Community Foundation.
Brenda also currently co-chairs the Advisory Committee of the Equity Fund of the Maine Community Foundation, which works to strengthen gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (GLBT) organizations in Maine. An interview with Brenda about a recent Equity Fund program appeared in the MCF’s fall 2009 newsletter. A longtime civil rights activist, Brenda helped write Portland’s Domestic Partnership Ordinance in 2001 and organized support for its passage. She also was a member of the Steering Committee during the 2006 Maine Won’t Discriminate Campaign, which successfully defended the statewide non-discrimination law against repeal.
Brenda feeds her writer’s soul as a member of the Board of Directors of the Maine Writers and Publisher’s Alliance.
Brenda and her partner, Diane Kenty, live in Westbrook.
Email:brenda@wacubu.com
