Mary was born in Molong and raised in Bourke, later graduating from Sydney University. She holds a Master of Laws degree from Sydney University and a Master of Arts degree in French. She was admitted to practice in New South Wales in 1985 and currently is the Corporate Counsel for Blacktown City Council.  Mary served as President of the New South Wales Law Society in 2010.

During her term as President she pursued the implementation of the national legal profession, the advancement of women and policies to enhance diversity in the profession.  She has previously chaired the Law Society Property Law and Environmental Planning and Development Committees, the Government Law Committee and served on the Disclosure Committee and the Conduct Committee.

In 2012 she was a recipient of the Legion of Honour medal, awarded by the French government for her contribution to promoting international goodwill between French and Australian lawyers.

She wants to represent you on the Law Society as she feels it needs someone who knows the ropes and can actually speak up and cut through. She legitimately wants to do the best by solicitors. She feels that new people who come on to council take years to get up to speed with the culture and politics. She has been a solicitor for 35 years. Most of her family are solicitors. She has worked for two small firms, a medium sized firm, a large firm and in the government sector. She knows and has lived the difficulties of being a solicitor from every angle. She has an appreciation of the struggles of being a country solicitor and a small practice establisher. She is acutely aware of the mental health demons we wrestle with given our volume of work, expected delivery level, competitive industry and achievement impulse that many of us have. She is putting herself forward to try and help the profession. She seeks no executive appointment on the Law Society.

Mary believes that strong lobbying is needed to prevent the loss of areas of practice for solicitors. Moreover, she is concerned about risk shifting to solicitors through PEXA and other routes. Risk gets shifted to solicitors rather than banks or others. LRS charges more and delivers less. Legal work can be outsourced to other countries. Some tribunals allow any other party to appear but insist that solicitors seek leave. The self-represented litigant can get treatment that is not afforded to members of the profession. We need to have an eye to how to pivot to address these challenges.

She wants to promote more appointments for solicitors and more lawyers on boards. She will seek out opportunities for solicitors to maximise remuneration and resist increasing regulatory burdens. The regulatory burdens that are suffered by solicitors do not apply to the accounting firms nor other professions.

Mary seeks the opportunity to continue to work for members. She considers that there is work to be done on maximising opportunities for solicitors to win appointments on boards, tribunals and courts.

In her spare time Mary rescues wildlife for a registered wildlife charity and referees in a voluntary capacity for several sports, including Olympic weightlifting. She was an Olympic level weightlifting referee at the Buenos Aires Youth Olympics in 2018.