Mary Lynch, JD

Professor Mary A. Lynch is the Kate Stoneman Chair in Law and Democracy. A magna cum laude graduate of New York University and a cum laude graduate from Harvard Law School, she served as an assistant district attorney in New York County from 1985-1989. She joined the Albany Law School faculty in 1989 and for the past twenty years has directed the Domestic Violence Prosecution Hybrid Clinic. During her tenure at Albany Law, she taught and directed the Disabilities Law Clinic, the Field Placement Clinic and the Post-Conviction Remedies Clinic. In 1997, while serving as director of Albany Law’s Domestic Violence Law Project, she and seven Albany Law School students won a groundbreaking clemency case for an incarcerated battered woman who killed her abuser.

The range of courses she has taught includes Criminal Procedure Adjudication, Disabilities Law Seminar, Domestic Violence Law Seminar, Pre-Trial and Trial Practice Courses (civil and criminal), and Litigation Planning and Skills.  Her scholarship has focused on multicultural awareness in legal education and law practice, gender bias, violence against women and legal education reform. From 2001 to 2009, Professor Lynch directed or co-directed the Albany Law Clinic & Justice Center. Albany Law School has honored her with the Excellence in Teaching Award (2014) and the Kate Stoneman Special Recognition Award for contributions to the advancement of women in the legal profession (2014).

Professor Lynch has played a leadership role in the movement to modernize legal education. From 2007 to 2020, she served as the Editor and frequent contributor of the award-winning Best Practices for Legal Education Blog and from 2009 to 2020 as the Director of the Center for Excellence in Law Teaching (CELT) at Albany Law School. Nationally, she has served as co-president and on the board of the Clinical Legal Education Association (an organization with over 1200 members) and as an executive committee and board member of the American Association of Law Schools (AALS) Section on Clinical Legal Education.  Within New York State, she served on the state bar’s Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Bar (LEAB) from 2011-2015 and from 2010-11 on the Future of the Legal Profession Taskforce, chairing the subcommittee on “Educating and Training New Lawyers”.

Professor Lynch has served on countless statewide and community coalitions and taskforces related to over her 30+ year career.  She has been honored by the National NOW’s Capital Region division with the Making Waves award and as an Irish Legal 100 Honoree by the Irish Voice and as a Top 100 Irish-American by Irish America magazine.