At Jackson & MacNichol, client service comes first. Founding partner Francis M. “Jack” Jackson wouldn’t have it any other way. “What distinguishes us more than anything else, I believe, is that we really do care about our clients, and we’ll go the extra mile for them,” Jack says. “I have a wonderful staff, and I’ve received numerous compliments on how attentive and caring they are. When you couple that with our expertise, it makes me very proud.” Jack has practiced law for more than 30 years, with a focus in the disability area. He likes that his practice allows him to make a significant difference in the lives of people facing difficulties. “Most of our clients come to us feeling very overwhelmed. They’re having physical and emotional problems – often both – and they’re just under a lot of pressure,” he says. “We try to make a connection with the client and let them know we’re in their corner. We’ll do everything we can to push their claim forward and try to take some of the weight off their shoulders.” Before launching Jackson & MacNichol, Jack practiced general civil and criminal litigation, including employee benefits and personal injury cases. “We narrowed it down to doing Social Security disability cases,” Jack says. “I decided it was something I enjoyed, and I was good at it.” After he had established his Social Security disability practice, a change in federal legislation allowed Jack to expand the firm’s practice areas to include the representation of veterans seeking disability benefits. “It’s nice to give back to people who served our country, and it’s an area where people need enormous help and support,” he says. In addition to representing clients before the Veterans’ Administration, Jack has pursued claims before the Court of Appeals for Veterans’ Claims and the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. “In both Social Security and veterans’ claims, we pursue cases on appeal, which is not something that a lot of other firms will do,” he says. “Nobody wins all of their cases, and that includes us. But I think if you asked any judge or client, they would say that we work hard and do our best to make every case a winning case.” Jack graduated summa cum laude from Bowdoin College in 1974. He went on to earn his law degree from the University of Maine School of Law in 1977, where he was on the law review staff and a member of the national moot court competition team. While in law school, he was selected to participate in the Mental Health Law Project in Washington, D.C. He also has been honored by awards from the Maine Bar Foundation for his pro bono work with the Volunteer Lawyers Project. In his spare time, Jack enjoys reading and traveling with his family.

Kevin Fitzgerald was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio and is proud of his Midwestern roots and work ethic. Although neither of his parents are attorneys, Kevin jokes that he was “raised” by plaintiffs’ lawyers. He first began working at a plaintiff’s injury law firm when he was fifteen years old and a sophomore in high school. For the ten years prior to attending law school, Kevin served as a litigation assistant at a national law practice where he worked closely with the firm’s trial team representing clients injured by asbestos-containing products. Kevin graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Minors in Geology and Geography from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Kevin attended the University of Maine School of Law where he graduated with honors. During law school, he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Ocean & Coastal Law Journal. Kevin was the recipient of the American Bar Association’s Award for Excellence in Land Use and Local Government Law, an outstanding scholastic achievement award in Environmental Law, and the Horace S. Libby Memorial Scholarship. In 2015, Kevin founded the Fitzgerald Law Group, LLC where he continues to concentrate his practice in representing men, women and children injured by medical devices, prescription drugs, over-the-counter products, asbestos, and in wrongful death and serious personal injury cases. Prior to founding the Fitzgerald Law Group, LLC, Kevin worked for another national mass tort law firm for fourteen years, serving as its managing attorney from 2008 to 2015. During his career, Kevin has played an integral role in developing, commencing and litigating significant injury cases from the initial case investigation stage through trial. He has taken or defended hundreds of depositions of plaintiffs, corporate employees, liability and causation experts, sales representatives and other key witnesses. He has helped identify experts in numerous disciplines and assisted in preparing their testimony for deposition and trial. He has also served as a member of the plaintiffs’ trial team in four national pharmaceutical drug cases, including Schedin v. Ortho-McNeil Pharmaceuticals, Inc., et al. in which the jury returned a $1.6 million verdict in favor of the plaintiff. Over the last fifteen years, Kevin has represented thousands of clients in a wide array of medical device and prescription drug cases as well as other consumer protection matters including Actos, Arava, Avelox, Baycol, Bextra, Biomet Hip Implants, Byetta, Celebrex, Depuy ASR & Pinnacle Hip Implants, Effexor, Ephedra, Fen Phen, Fleet Phospho-Soda, Fosamax, Gadolinium, Levaquin, Lipitor, Mesothelioma, Mirena IUD, Nuvaring, Ortho Evra, Phenylpropanolamine (PPA), Pradaxa, Pravachol, Rezulin, Risperdal, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), Stadol, Stryker Rejuvenate & ABGII Hip Implants, Talcum Powder, Testosterone Replacement Therapy (“Low-T”), Transvaginal Mesh, Trovan, Viagra, Vioxx, Xarelto, Yaz, Zicam, Zimmer Hip Implants, Zithromax, Zofran, Zoloft, Zometa and Zyprexa. In addition to pharmaceutical and medical device cases, Kevin has experience handling wrongful death, personal injury, data breach, Fair Debt Collection Practice Act (FDCPA), and consumer protection cases. Kevin lives in Portland, Maine with his wife, who is also a lawyer, and their three children. The family are members of Our Lady of Hope Parish in Portland. When he is not working late, he enjoys cooking, hiking and fishing throughout the State of Maine, coaching youth athletics, and cheering on his favorite Cleveland sports’ teams.