Hon. Mary Ann Killeen ’52
Hon. Mary Ann Killeen ’52 worked in private practice with a large firm before becoming a Family Court judge. When she retired, she had served as a Family Court jurist for 22 years, and as supervising judge for eight.
About this Interview
Interview Date(s)
May 15, 2002 (audio)
May 3, 2012 (video)
Occasion
Annual Dinner (2012)
Interviewed By
Lynn Clarke (2002)
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About the Hon. Mary Ann Killeen
Judge Killeen was the eldest of four children. Her mother was a nurse at a clinic on Main Street and her father graduated in 1915 from Buffalo law school. Her great-uncle was also a lawyer. She attended St. Mary’s Seminary on North Street, then Trinity College in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1948. Her mother was open-minded about careers for women and did not object when she preferred becoming a lawyer to becoming a schoolteacher.
Judge Killeen’s parents paid her law school tuition for the first year. She then had to drop out for a year in 1949 to manage her father’s law firm in Ellicott Square when he became ill. Dean Hyman offered to give her a scholarship. There was collegiality and a determined attitude among the law students, many of whom were utilizing the GI Bill for their degree. Only three law students out of 100 were female. Some male classmates complained that their friends couldn’t get in because women took up places without planning on working in law. The professors were generally supportive.
Early in her career, in addition to working in her father’s office, she was an associate for the Kennefick Cook law firm, now Phillips Lytle, as well as with Letchworth, Baldy, Phillips & Emblidge. She represented clients before the Buffalo Common Council and in City Court.
She accepted the Democratic nomination for Family Court judge, then called Children’s Court, in 1965 and was defeated. But she ran again and won a 10-year term in 1967. She was re-elected in 1977 and 1987. She could have served through 1997 but took early retirement in 1989. Most of the cases were juvenile delinquents.
While presiding judge, she also held additional posts. She was an acting Supreme Court justice for the 8th Judicial District and served on the Advisory Committee on Family Law of New York State.
At her retirement, she was president-elect of the New York Association of Family Court Judges. A staunch supporter of women in the legal profession, she was a former president of Women Lawyers of Western New York.
Born May 23, 1927—Died Jan. 10, 2017
