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Bar News - July 26, 2002 Finding Freedom at the Point of a Pen By: Dan Wise WHILE DEALING WITH a client who drives you crazy, or sitting through an interminable hearing or meeting, haven’t there been times when you wished you could stand up and shout what was really on your mind? Can you recall wrestling with a strong urge to point out that what Mr. So-and-So is really saying is...? Stephen C. Jordan, a NH Bar member and an associate at Verrill & Dana in Portland, Maine, has been there, too – but instead of speaking up, Jordan skewers pomposity and slashes through false facades with strokes of his cartooning pen. Jordan draws dozens of cartoons each year, and is having modest success at publishing them in a variety of venues, including the Maine Lawyers Review, the Moosehead Messenger (serving the Moosehead Lake region in northern Maine, where Jordan has a camp), and on the mainebusinesslaw.com Web site. Jordan said he’s also sold several works of his art through online art auction sites, and he’s negotiating with a well-known retailer in Maine on an illustration project using his Mandamus Moose char acter. But the greatest reward Jordan finds from cartooning is the simple joy of free expression. "It is very liberating to be able to say whatever you want, or to poke fun at something through a cartoon – it’s quite a contrast to the confines of practicing law," he said. Cartooning also was a departure in style for Jordan, whose initial artistic forays were more traditional. He sold his first illustrations while in high school to the Wells (Maine) Historical Society, and once sold an illustration for the cover of the Boston Red Sox media guide. He briefly attended art school before he decided to pursue law as his career. Perhaps in rebellion to the rationality and structure imposed by the law, Jordan took up cartooning after graduating from law school, emphasizing a more relaxed, less disciplined style. Jordan, admitted to the Bar in 1998 after obtaining his law degree from the University of Maine Law School, worked at the Devine Millimet law firm for a year before returning to his home state of Maine. He joined the Verrill & Dana firm, where he is involved in corporate and intellectual property law, concentrating particularly on Internet issues. In addition to his cartooning and legal work, Jordan has also developed a Web site, mainebusinesslaw.com, which has become affiliated with Verrill & Dana. Jordan said that initially, his colleagues were puzzled by his artistic avocation. "When I first mentioned my cartooning, reactions were mixed," he said. "I think some thought it was kind of odd for a lawyer to be doing that." Eventually, his "odd" pursuit became more accepted; Jordan’s firm has asked him to do cartoons for firm events, such as retirement parties. He’s now even talking with the firm about doing a painting – a "serious" one – for display in the lobby. Among Jordan’s most devoted fans are his two daughters, Valencia and Aliza, aged 6 and 4, who know all of the characters that regularly appear in his cartoon panels: Mandamus Moose, Esq., Judge Hootey, Rainy the Rabbit, Flappy the Beaver, Buster the Bear, Kineo the Fox (named after a mountain in Maine), and others. While they enjoy watching him work on his cartoons, Jordan says his daughters’ most persistent question is, "When is ‘Mandamus and Friends’ going to be on TV?" Animation may not be in the characters’ immediate future, but Jordan has written an educational book about the law using cartoon characters. As for other projects, who knows – when Jordan seats himself before his drawing board, he feels anything is possible.
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