Child Psychology Expert and Attorney Margaret McLean Transforms Courtrooms with Creative Play Therapy Solutions

Summary

Margaret McLean is a tenacious, hardworking attorney who has created her own unique approach to the practice of law. She provides her services in diverse settings, from a traditional courtroom to the playroom. Her passion for the law is evident in her dedication to protecting the rights of her clients.


With an impressive legal background, Margaret McLean is a well-respected attorney who brings a deep understanding of the law to her practice. She has been a prosecutor for six years, a family law attorney for seven, and founded her own firm in 2000. Throughout her career, she has shown a commitment to upholding the law and ensuring justice for those she represents.

McLean's approach to the practice of law is to bring the courtroom into the playroom. She focuses on the individual needs of her clients, ranging from marriage and family law to criminal defense. She makes sure that her clients understand the legal process, have the opportunity to make informed decisions, and protect their rights in an environment of respect and dignity.

In addition to her legal expertise, McLean has gained experience in a variety of other areas that benefit her clients. She is an experience mediator and has also been trained in alternative dispute resolution. This combination of skills and experience makes her an invaluable asset to her clients.

McLean is also an active member of her community. She volunteers her time and services to organizations such as Legal Aid of North Carolina, Legal Services of North Carolina, and the Mecklenburg County Bar Association. Margaret McLean is passionate about justice and is committed to ensuring that her clients receive the fairest possible results.

Margaret McLean is a highly experienced and dedicated attorney who brings her unique approach to the practice of law. She provides her services in a variety of settings, from the courtroom to the playroom, and utilizes alternative dispute resolution methods to ensure the best possible outcome for her clients. With extensive experience working in the legal system, McLean is an invaluable asset to her clients. She is dedicated to upholding justice and protecting the rights of her clients with respect and dignity.
 

Margaret McLean: Attorney Brings Courtroom Into the Playroom

Under the guidance of Margaret McLean, a seasoned attorney and law professor, the Courtroom into the Playroom project sits at the cusp of the legal profession's traditional rules and the state's evolving laws. The project is a collaboration between the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, school systems, and the Attorney General's office, encouraging teachers to incorporate legal-themed education into their classrooms to help children better understand the concept of justice.

McLean and her fellow experts strive to make the law more accessible to children using age-appropriate topics, such as creating replica courtrooms, introducing students to a variety of legal workers, and providing students with interactive activities about legal concepts. In McLean's opinion, the initiative will prove beneficial for everyone involved.

For over three decades, Margaret McLean has been an influential force in the legal profession. She has written extensively on topics ranging from first amendment issues to civil rights, and has been a teaching professor at several leading Massachusetts universities. McLean maintains an active legal practice, with a special emphasis on teaching the next generation of attorneys the importance of justice.

McLean has been a leader in the movement to make the legal system more accessible to the youth of Massachusetts. As a result, she has built a strong relationship with the Supreme Judicial Court, the Attorney General's office, and school systems across the state of Massachusetts. McLean also serves on the Board of Visitors for the Massachusetts School of Law, a private, non-profit institution, which provides affordable legal education to students from diverse backgrounds.

The Courtroom into the Playroom project is a reflection of McLean's passion for connecting the youth of Massachusetts with the legal system. The initiative connects teachers, educational administrators, and legal professionals to provide students with an immersive experience that helps them to better understand the law. The goal of the project is to create an environment of learning and collaboration between the legal system and the school system.

<<To litigate or procreate? That's a question faced by many attorneys. Juggling the two can be almost impossible, and the law is not the best profession for job sharing. For a litigator, part-time simply isn't an option.

That's why Margaret McLean, 38, decided to bring the courtroom home. Her novel, ''Under Oath,'' about the code of silence in Boston's Irish Catholic Charlestown neighborhood, has opened many new doors for the prosecutor turned author.

The novel is 90 percent set in the courtroom, and Ms. McLean says she intends to make courtroom writing her niche. ''Under Oath'' is fictional but based on many different characters and events in Charlestown, which, during the early 90s, had the highest unsolved murder rate in the country. Ms. McLean said the Irish mafia was notorious in Charlestown for silencing any potential witnesses.

She is now working on her second courtroom-based novel, which will revolve around an arson case.

Ms. McLean, who was an English major before attending Boston College Law School, said she always wanted to write a novel about the law and made a habit of taking notes before her cases were heard. If you want to write a novel, take notes like a reporter, she said.

''I would bring a legal pad every time you sit down in court. You know how you sit down and you wait for your case to be called? I used to take a legal pad to court and write down all sorts of ideas,'' she said. ''I'd even look around the courtroom and start describing what the courtroom looked like on my legal pad. Or some of the funny things that have happened. There's so much you get.''

One example from her book is when the flamboyant, older defense attorney is late for court. His client, the jury, and judge are all waiting when he rushes in and throws his briefcase on the table, spilling all his papers. The judge wants to know his excuse.

''And he says, 'oh I got hit by a duck boat,''' McLean said. ''You know those are the famous duck boats in Boston. I had written it down. And every time something funny or unusual happens, have a legal pad and write it down, and then if you're a prosecutor or even on the civil side, interesting twists of law will come up in certain cases. Again, write it down.''

Ms. McLean, who graduated from BC Law School in 1991, wrote her first novel during college about the life of Fyodor Dostoevsky, her favorite author. She won the prestigious Scholar of the College Award for that book, and Dostoevsky has been a big influence on her writing career.

''He was just so descriptive, and my favorite book is ''Crime and Punishment,'' she said. ''I think that's one of the first legal thrillers out there.''

After graduating from law school, Ms. McLean became an Essex County Assistant District Attorney in Lawrence, MA. She prosecuted hundreds of criminal cases against gang members, drug dealers, and murderers.

In 1994, Ms. McLean went into private practice as in-house counsel for an insurance company, doing all the courtroom litigation. Her first child was born in 1996 and the second in 1999.

''And it just got really difficult balancing both career and family, because litigation is a fulltime job,'' she said. ''There didn't seem to be anything part time so I could spend time with the kids. So I ended up combining the two and started writing this legal thriller. And it is 90 percent in the courtroom, so what I did really was I brought the courtroom into the playroom. That's what I say. And I said you know I want to continue with a legal career and especially the trial work, but there was no way to do it. So I created the book.''

Ms. McLean tried her last case in January 1999, while more than nine months pregnant with her son.

''I won, because everybody felt sorry for me as a big, pregnant attorney,'' she said.

That same January, Ms. McLean made a New Year's resolution to finish the book she had been writing on and off for four years. While writing is a flexible career, Ms. McLean said the biggest mistake she made was not writing every day.

''I made a New Year's resolution that I would finish the manuscript by the year 2000, and in order to do that, I wrote down the goal and I just sat down and worked on it every day. I worked on it when I put the kids to bed or during naptime. Then all of a sudden, I did finish the manuscript by the year 2000,'' she said.

Then she found an agent and started re-writing certain parts of the book. Now people keep asking her when the next one will be done.

''It's getting really good reviews in Boston and people are saying when's the next one coming out? Are you going to bring back the defense attorney as a character? What about the prosecutor, is he coming back? So it's really fun, and I'm actually very happy I chose this route,'' she said.

Her children are now three, five, and eight. When she started writing, Ms. Mclean had an infant, a toddler, and another baby on the way.

''I used the legal pad as a changing pad. I learned how to type one handed and hold the baby in the other arm,'' she said. ''I couldn't be happier right now. I think this is my career from now on because I'm having so much fun. For example, I'm working on the arson book, and I'm going out to the State Fire Marshall's Office out in Stowe, and I'm learning how they investigate arsons. And as a result they asked me to be on their board of directors for this juvenile fire-setters program and I'm going to do that.''

While promoting ''Under Oath'' on a morning Boston radio show, the editors asked if she would become the show's legal expert, and she is now on call for the show in the mornings.

''The reason I focused 90 percent on courtroom was because the courtroom really is the heart and soul of the community,'' she said.

''You have 12 jurors coming from all different walks of life. You can have an accountant. You can have a janitor, teachers, and everybody brings something to the table; prejudices, knowledge about certain things…or someone might have a distant relative on the police force, or they may have prejudices against the police. But it all comes into play in the actual courtroom arena, where the actual attorneys are battling it out. The witnesses are becoming emotional. I just think it's such a—it's just the heart and soul of the community.''

Ms. McLean said she was most nervous about fellow attorneys reading the book.

''I was actually really nervous about being so detailed with the law because I thought, 'oh, God, if I make one little mistake the attorneys are going to be all over me,' because that's the way attorneys are,'' she said. ''I've had awesome reviews from the attorneys, so I'm thrilled with that.''