Mary C. Daly

The St. John's University School of Law mourns the passing of Mary C. Daly, Dean of the School of Law and John V. Brennan Chair of Law and Ethics.  Dean Daly served as Dean of School of Law from 2003-2008.

Before assuming the deanship, she was the James H. Quinn Professor of Legal Ethics at Fordham University School of Law, where she also served as the Director of the law school's Graduate Program and the Co-Director of its Louis Stein Center for Law and Ethics.

Dean Daly had published numerous articles on legal ethics, especially in the area of corporate and cross-border practice.  Among her recent scholarly publications are:  INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PRACTICE: PROFESSIONAL RIGHTS AND LAWYER ETHICS (forthcoming); Teaching Integrity in the Professional Responsibility Curriculum: A Modest Proposal for Change, 72 FORDHAM LAW REVIEW 261 (2003); The Structure of Legal Education and the Legal Profession, Multidisciplinary Practice, Competition, and Globalization, 52 JOURNAL OF LEGAL EDUCATION 480 (2002); Aristocrat, Monopolist, or Entrepreneur?: A Comparative Perspective on the Future of Multidisciplinary Partnerships in the United States, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom After the Disintegration of Andersen Legal, 80 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY LAW QUARTERLY 589 (2002); and The Ethical Implications of the Globalization of the Legal Profession: A Challenge to the Teaching of Professional Responsibility in the Twenty-First Century, 21 FORDHAM INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL (1998).  She is also the editor of THE NEW YORK CODE OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY: OPINIONS, COMMENTARY, AND CASELAW (Oceana Publications 1997 & 2005 Supp).

A member of the Class of 1972 at Fordham University School of Law where she served as the Book Review Editor of the Law Review, Dean Daly began her legal career as an associate at the firm of Rogers & Wells.  She left private practice to enter public service as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1975.  She subsequently served as the Deputy Chief and Chief of that office’s Civil Division.  Dean Daly joined the faculty of Fordham Law School in 1983.

In addition to being a teacher and scholar, Dean Daly has played a very active role in both state and national professional organizations.  She was the Reporter for the ABA Commission on Multidisciplinary Practice from 1998 to 2000.  She currently serves as a member of the Out-of-the Box Committee of the American Bar Association Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar and was a Member of the Standing Committee on Professional Discipline from 2001 to 2004.

Dean Daly was also the Reporter to the New York State Bar Association Task Force on the Profession from 1994 to 1995.  She is a past chair of the Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Professional Responsibility Section and the Section on Graduate Programs for Foreign Lawyers of the Association of American Law Schools, and the Editorial Board of the ABA/BNA Lawyers' Manual on Professional Conduct.  She served as a member of the Departmental Disciplinary Committee for the Appellate Division, First Department from 1990 to 1996.

Dean Daly was recently a member of three separate delegations of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, visiting Chile, Rwanda, and Brazil in 2002 and 2003 to lecture on legal ethics and pro bono obligations.  Dean Daly also served as a Trustee of the Federal Bar Council Foundation from 1997 to 2004.

Dean Daly earned her B.A. in Cursu Honorum from Thomas More College, Phi Beta Kappa (1969), her J.D., cum laude, from Fordham University School of Law, (1972), and an LL.M. with emphasis in Comparative Law from New York University School of Law (1978).  She was a Zichkla Fellow at the Université de Paris, Faculté de Droit (1973).

Dean Mary C. Daly
Mary C. Daly, Dean, School of Law