Prior to joining Phillips Black, she was an Assistant Public Defender with the capital habeas unit of the Office of Public Defender in Wilmington, Delaware, and an attorney and Acting Director with the Death Penalty Litigation Clinic in Kansas City. For her work in Missouri, she received the Missouri Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ 2010 Atticus Finch Award. Ms. Merrigan is a frequent speaker at conferences and training seminars on capital habeas and death penalty mitigation. She is a graduate of DePaul University and the University of Missouri at Kansas City.