Joan Fortin is an attorney at Bernstein Shur in Portland, Maine. For the past 10 years, Joan has been a member of the firm’s Board of Directors and has served as the firm’s Director of Attorney Recruiting. While her legal practice has focused on land use development and economic development, in recent years she has become an outspoken advocate for gender and pay equity, and diversity and inclusion. Joan’s speaking engagements include leading a panel discussion in 2016 on Women Leading in the Workplace, which discussed the gender wage gap in the context of the book, Women Don’t Ask, followed by speaking on a panel at the 2017 Mainebiz Forum on Women’s Leadership on the topic of “The Gender Wage Gap: which is this still a thing?” In June 2018, she delivered a rousing TED-style talk on gender issues in the workplace at the first annual DisruptHR Conference, and in August 2018, Mainebiz named her a 2018 Woman to Watch, recognizing her for as a champion for diversity and inclusion in the legal industry. Joan earned her B.A. from Colby College, a Master’s Degree in Education from the University of Maine, and her J.D. from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston.
