Faculty Directory

Mary O'Connell

Bio

Professor O’Connell retired from the law school in 2017. Over the course of her career, students benefitted from classes in the fields of family law, children’s law and property. She served on the editorial board of the interdisciplinary journal Family Court Review, and was active in a number of projects and associations that work to bridge the gap between the legal and mental health professions.

Professor O’Connell taught regularly in the Postdoctoral Forensics Program at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She also taught an annual seminar to the judges of the Massachusetts Probate and Family Court and servedas an advisor to the court’s Steering Committee on Administrative Reform. Along with law students from the Youth Advocacy Caucus (YAC), Professor O’Connell ran a mentoring program at three area group homes for teens in state custody.

After graduating from the School of Law, Professor O’Connell was the first law school graduate to clerk for the Supreme Judicial Court of the state of Maine. She was an associate at the Boston firm Foley, Hoag & Eliot from 1976 through 1980, where she handled contract, insurance and public utility cases while running a pro bono family practice.