Mary Ann Mullaney

An accomplished trial and appellate lawyer, Mary Ann Mullaney defends businesses, governmental entities, and individuals in complex litigation in federal and state courts. In practice as a litigator for twenty-five years, Mary has achieved defense verdicts in both jury and non-jury trials. Additionally, she has considerable experience as a successful appellate advocate.

In law school, Mary was a staff member, and then the Articles Editor, of the law review. Following graduation with honors from law school, Mary served as a law clerk for Senior U.S. District Judge Clarkson S. Fisher, who sat on the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey and on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit by designation. Upon completion of her judicial clerkship, Mary served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey for two and a half years.

Mary then spent the next twenty years of her career in two of the nation’s largest and most prestigious law firms. After working as a litigation associate for two years at McCarter & English in Newark, New Jersey, Mary joined Blank Rome LLP in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the same role. Four years later, Mary was promoted to partner, a position she held for the next fourteen years. At Blank Rome LLP, commercial litigation was an area of specialty. Mary also successfully litigated matters involving civil rights, state legislative redistricting, corporate governance, intellectual property, antitrust, employment, professional malpractice, product liability, and toxic tort/environmental litigation, among others. Given that Mary began her career in the practice of criminal defense as an Assistant Federal Public Defender, the substantial experience she has acquired since so serving has also extended to white collar criminal defense as well as to government and internal investigations.

An avid follower of the significant developments impacting those in the legal profession, Mary frequently speaks and writes on topics of interest to litigators. She has served as a guest lecturer on e-discovery at Temple University School of Law and Widener University School of Law. Additionally, Mary is a former adjunct instructor at Seton Hall University School of Law, where she taught appellate advocacy.

In 2008, Mary was inducted as a Fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America (LCA), a trial lawyer honorary society composed of less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers. She is also a member of LCA’s Complex Commercial Litigation Institute.

It is an understatement to describe Mary as passionate as concerns issues impacting women in the legal profession. Mary is the co-founder of the Fearless Women Network, a non-profit committed to ensuring, among other things, that high-performing women and diverse lawyers achieve pay equity and the highest positions of power and influence. She is also a member of the National Association of Women Lawyers’ Diversity, Survey and Amicus Committees; the Pennsylvania Bar Association’s Commission on Women in the Profession; and the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Women’s Initiatives in Law Firms Task Force. Mary is also a member of the International Board and Philadelphia Board Program Host Committees of DirectWomen, a non-profit dedicated to increasing the number of women lawyers on corporate boards.

In 2015, Mary was appointed a reviewer in the Investigative Division of the Commission on Judicial Selection and Retention of the Philadelphia Bar Association.