Mary S. Croly graduated with honors from Franklin & Marshall College in 1985 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Accounting and Economics. She received her J.D. from the Temple School of Law in 1988. She is admitted to practice in New York (Southern and Eastern Districts), New Jersey, the District of Columbia and before the United States Tax Court. After graduating from Temple School of Law she joined the big four accounting firm of KPMG as a tax specialist in its Middle Market Group in New York City. Since then, Ms. Croly has practiced in the trust and estate field at several New York area law firms, and joined McLaughlin & Stern, LLP in 2006 as an associate in the trust and estate department. Mary’s practice is concentrated in the areas of wills, trusts, estate planning and administration, guardianships and real estate.

Mary was a co-author of the two-volume text, Handling Federal Estate and Gift Taxes, 6th Edition, published by West Group and an assistant editor of “Insights & Strategies,” an estate planning publication for professionals. Mary is a co-author of “Statutory Time Limits for Guardianship Hearings & Decisions,” published in The Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s “The Record,” Vol. 53, No.3, May-June 1998. She chaired The Association of the Bar of the City of New York’s Committee on Legal Problems of the Aging from 1999-2002. She has been a faculty member of The Association of the Bar of the City of New York where she was a frequent lecturer on Article 81 of the Mental Hygiene Law. She was also on the faculty of Practicing Law Institute where she has published articles in their CLE books entitled “Article 81 of the Mental Hygiene Law: Guardianship for Personal Needs,” and most recently “Basic Estate Planning for the Elderly Facing Health Care Needs/Wills and Will Execution.”

Mary is a member of The City Bar Association (Past Committee Member: Trusts, Estates And Surrogate’s Court and Gift and Taxation) and New York State Bar Association (Section Member: Trusts and Estates and Elder Law). On The City Bar Association’s Trusts, Estates and Surrogate’s Court Committee she has chaired a subcommittee on the New York Decanting Statute. She is a volunteer attorney for the Legal Services of the Hudson Valley and at the Mitchell Rabbino Decision Making Day Program for the New York State Bar Association.

Mary has been selected to be a Super Lawyer 2012-2022.  Ms. Croly is a co-founder of PELP (Planning and Estates Law Project) for the City Bar Justice Center, the first organization that provides legal assistance for individuals who cannot hire an attorney to prepare wills, powers of attorney and administer estates. Mary has been honored with being the 2015 recipient of the Mitchell Stein Pro Bono Award at the City Bar Association.