Mariam Alison Irwin

Mariam A. Irwin was born in Bethesda, Maryland and moved to Huntsville in 2003. Mari is a direct descendant of Benjamin Franklin on her father’s side of the family and a third-generation attorney on her mother’s side of the family.  She is named after her maternal great grandmother, whose husband ran a fruit cart in New York City in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Mari attended undergraduate school in New Orleans, Louisiana.  She graduated in 2001 with a double major in Psychology and Sociology from Newcomb College at Tulane University.  While at Tulane, Mari wrote music reviews for the Tulane Hullabaloo and was a member of the school band.

After graduating from college, Mari worked as a legal assistant in a variety of law firms in Washington, DC and Huntsville, Alabama.

Mari graduated from Cumberland School of Law in 2008.  She was an active member of Cumberland’s Women in Law student organization, Trial Advocacy Board, and Cordell Hull Speaker’s Forum.  Mari was selected to be a Judge Abraham Caruthers Fellow, to assist first year students in their legal writing class.  While at law school, Mari focused on practical legal skills in her classes and through competing in and judging student competitions in the areas of mediation, client counseling, negotiation, and trials.

Immediately after passing the Alabama Bar Exam, Mari began working with the law firm of William P. Burgess, Jr., P.C., which specializes in all areas of family law.  In October of 2012, she opened her own family law practice.

Since she was first admitted to practice law, Mari has been an active member of her local Huntsville-Madison County Bar Association, as well as in statewide professional organizations.  She was a founding member of the Madison County Women’s Section in 2008 and chaired the section from 2010 through 2012. 

From 2012 to 2013, Mari was a member of the Alabama Law Institute’s Collaborative Law Committee, which created state guidelines and statutes regarding the uniform use of collaborative law in this state. Since 2013, she has been a member of the Alabama Supreme Court Committee on Collaborative Law Rules of Procedure. 

From 2014 through 2016, Mari was the North Alabama Regional Chair of the Family Law Section of the Alabama State Bar.

Outside of work, Mari enjoys spending time with her husband and her rescue dogs, following politics, researching her family genealogy, cooking, and reading.