A lawyer since 1994, she is licensed to practice in Ohio and Georgia. Although she has practiced in a variety of areas, much of her focus has been in criminal law, at both the federal and state levels. In addition to practicing law, she spent 12 years working in online legal publishing. Mary has a B.A. in Political Science from Emory University and a J.D. from Cornell Law School, where she served as Senior Note Editor on the Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy.