Mary Campbell Gallagher

Born and raised in Chicago and trained as a lawyer at Harvard, urbanist Mary Campbell Gallagher calls herself a "captivated student" of rebuilding the New York City economy and a passionate advocate for preserving the skyline of Paris. Her op-ed "Who Will Save the Skyline of Paris?" appeared on Planetizen.com on November 29, 2010, and subsequent articles about the skyline of Paris have appeared on BonjourParis.com and in Traditional Building Magazine. On March 22, 2011, she addressed the Annual Meeting in Paris of the preservationist organization SOS Paris.

An advocate for local commerce, Dr. Gallagher has argued, in Newsday and elsewhere, that Wal-Mart's claim that it creates jobs is false. She proved that big box stores like Wal-Mart actually destroy jobs, instead. She has testified on big box stores before the Economic Development Committee of the New York City Council. In the Nation, she has reviewed Mike Wallace's book A New Deal for New York, urging the strengthening of the manufacturing sector of the New York City economy. She frequently speaks on that subject. A widely-published writer, Dr. Gallagher is a member of the Authors Guild, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and the National Arts Club.

Also a leading expert on preparation for the bar exam, Dr. Gallagher is the author of the widely-praised book Scoring High on Bar Exam Essays and of Perform Your Best on the Bar Exam Performance Test (MPT)(forthcoming). She is President of BarWrite®, a division of Mary Campbell Gallagher & Co., Inc., that offers Continuing Legal Education classes and courses preparing candidates for the bar examination, and of BarWrite Press, which publishes legal study guides.

Dr. Gallagher attended St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, on whose Board of Visitors and Governors she served for six years, and she was graduated from Barnard College with the A.B. in philosophy, receiving the Montague Prize for distinction in philosophy. She holds the J.D. from Harvard Law School and the Ph.D. from the University of Illinois. Dr. Gallagher has received many awards and honors. The Virginia Center for the Creative Arts has honored her four times with VCCA fellowships.

A member of the Massachusetts and District of Columbia Bars, Dr. Gallagher currently serves on the New York State Bar Association Committee on Legal Education and Admission to the Profession, where she has chaired the subcommittee on ABA accreditation of overseas law schools. In the past, she has served on the national Accreditation Panel of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) and on the Board of Directors of the New York Tri-State Speakers Association, Inc. (NYTSA-NSA), which awarded her its highest honor, the Alan Cimberg Award, in 2002.

Dr. Gallagher is a member of the Federalist Society, the National Association of Scholars, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and numerous other professional, civic, architectural and planning organizations. She belongs to the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Harvard Club of New York City, and the National Arts Club, where she is an active member of the Architectural Committee.