{"id":19891,"date":"2025-03-05T12:54:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T18:54:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/?p=19891"},"modified":"2025-03-05T12:54:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T18:54:43","slug":"margaret-leary-73-chooses-to-give-back-to-the-places-that-chose-her","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/2025\/03\/05\/margaret-leary-73-chooses-to-give-back-to-the-places-that-chose-her\/","title":{"rendered":"Margaret Leary \u201973 chooses to give back to the places that chose her"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Then (pictured left): Leary in 1984 when she became the first woman to head a library at one of the top five U.S. law schools, upon assuming directorship of the University of Michigan Law School library. Now (pictured right): Leary today, who retired in 2011 from the Michigan Law School library after serving 38 years there\u2014her entire professional legal career.<\/p><\/div>\n

Margaret Leary \u201973 had already earned a master\u2019s degree in library science and wanted to continue her education with a PhD in political science, but the university, in 1968, only accepted her into the master\u2019s program. When she asked why they didn\u2019t accept her into the doctoral program, they said they didn\u2019t like admitting women because pregnancies and divorces caused them to drop out.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I heard him say that,\u201d Leary said, \u201cI instantly knew I didn\u2019t want to study there if that\u2019s how they think about women.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leary then applied to William Mitchell College of Law, where she was admitted with open arms, and earned a juris doctorate near the top of her class. A decision she doesn\u2019t regret.<\/p>\n

There she was able to attend classes including constitutional law, legislation, and property law at night. She worked for two years at the school\u2019s library during the day, and another year at the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis as a student lawyer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just loved being at that law school. And I\u2019m grateful that they offered it at night because I couldn\u2019t have attended otherwise,\u201d said Leary. \u201cI made really good friends there, and I\u2019m still in touch with many of the ones who are still alive. I considered then Dean Doug Heidenrich \u201961 to be one of my heroes. It\u2019s good to see that Mitchell Hamline is still serving the same purpose as it did back then, only expanded and evolved, which is necessary in legal education. It shows with the diversity of its students.\u201d<\/p>\n

After graduating law school, Leary was discouraged that local firms weren\u2019t as open to hiring women as attorneys. Leary\u2019s mother, still living in their hometown of Oberlin, Ohio, clipped an ad from the newspaper for an opportunity at the University of Michigan Law Library and mailed it to her daughter in Minnesota. The school was looking for someone with both a law degree and a library degree, but the position wasn\u2019t for a lawyer\u2014instead, it was for a director in the legal profession. Leary hadn\u2019t considered applying her education toward a job like this, but it ended up being perfect and became her life\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

At the University of Michigan Law Library, Leary first served as assistant director, moved up to associate director, and ultimately was promoted in 1984 to director until she retired in 2011. While there, she developed the \u201cMichigan model\u201d of direct librarian support for faculty research; was consultant to Nottingham University (England) Law School, Northwestern University Libraries, and Melbourne (Australia) University Law School; and served on 15 accreditation teams for the American Bar Association.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved my job at the University Michigan Law Library. It\u2019s one of the best law libraries in the world with a collection from every country. People come from all over the world because of the collection and the services the library has to offer. The increased support that law librarians have provided to faculty for their research is an accomplishment that I\u2019m very proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

After retirement, Leary established an endowed scholarship at Mitchell Hamline to help students with financial need. She also has the school named in her estate plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t have earned a degree or obtained my career without going to William Mitchell. And Mitchell Hamline continues to do a wonderful job educating lawyers. I think it\u2019s important for schools like Mitchell Hamline to exist and it\u2019s worth paying back. As law school becomes more expensive, the profession must ensure the entry for all talented people, not just those who are talented and can afford it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

To date, the Margaret A. Leary Scholarship has benefited 17 students and will continue each year. One recent recipient, Sophie Hill, wrote in a letter to Leary that \u201cgoing to law school has been the best decision I have ever made. I have found law school to be a challenging but fascinating, thought-provoking, and rewarding experience. I cannot fully express my gratitude for this scholarship.\u201d Because her tuition was funded by Leary\u2019s generosity, Hill was able to complete an externship with the Office of the Solicitor at the Department of the Interior and participate on the Mitchell Hamline Law Review, Vol. 51, as the associate editor-in-chief.<\/p>\n

In addition to impacting the lives of students through her scholarship, Leary chose to give back to the law school through her time serving on William Mitchell\u2019s board of trustees from 1993 to 2002. She has also served with many community organizations, including, among others, the League of Women Voters and Institute of Continuing Legal Education.<\/p>\n

In addition, she has written publications and conducted research projects covering a wide variety of interests. Her most recent volunteer study with the University of Michigan Bentley Historical Library<\/a> is centered around locating African American students who attended the University of Michigan from 1817 to 1980, with a focus on Michigan law school.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Margaret Leary \u201973 had already earned a master\u2019s degree in library science and wanted to continue her education with a PhD in political science, but the university, in 1968, only accepted her into the master\u2019s program. When she asked why they didn\u2019t accept her into the doctoral program, they said they didn\u2019t like admitting women … <\/p>\n

Margaret Leary \u201973 chooses to give back to the places that chose her<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2537,"featured_media":19892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[161,3,163],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-alumni","8":"category-alumni-spotlight","9":"category-news","10":"entry"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2537"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mitchellhamline.edu\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}