Carter, Douglas L.

Mary V. Carrigan is a skilled and experienced negotiator and litigator who has practiced exclusively in the area of family law since 1996 and has been board certified in Family Law since 1999. After receiving her law degree from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1984, she worked as a general civil and criminal attorney for a short period before beginning a clerkship with Federal Magistrate Judge Barbara H. Delaney in the Western District of North Carolina, Charlotte, NC. In this capacity, she was involved in cases involving drugs and white collar crimes, search and seizure issues, social security disability cases and prisoner rights cases. Upon completion of her clerkship, Mary Carrigan joined an experienced attorney in the practice of federal and state criminal cases, personal injury cases, domestic law and some general civil litigation. One case involved the impact of a state highway project on an historic district in Hickory, NC. Representing the neighborhood, Mary Carrigan twice argued that case in front of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Gradually, she began to focus on domestic law cases alone. Since she opened her own office in 1996, she has engaged in the type of practice she envisioned when she enrolled in law school, handling only domestic law cases.

During the period of time since she began to practice domestic law, that field of law has changed dramatically from one in which most cases were tried to a Judge to one in which most cases are settled through mediation or collaboration. Mary Carrigan has had formal training in Collaborative law and has participated in numerous mediations in addition to continuing to try cases that cannot be settled by these means. In any of those settings, Mary Carrigan works to protect her client's rights and achieve the best outcome given the law and the facts. Once that outcome is determined it is critical that the resulting court order or Separation Agreement be carefully crafted to minimize future problems which can result from lack of clarity. This part of her practice receives just as careful attention as reaching that result.

Mary Carrigan brings many life experiences to her practice which help to make her more effective. Her first job after receiving her undergraduate degree from Texas Christian University was with the American Red Cross working for a year in Vietnam during the war. Back from overseas, she worked in a military hospital as a social worker before returning to school for a Masters in Social Work at Tulane University. Mary Carrigan worked in mental health centers, primarily with children and families, in New Orleans and Charlotte, NC. Later, she taught social work to undergraduates in several North Carolina colleges. She was motivated, in part, to go to law school by observing the impact of laws on families.

Mary Carrigan is a divorced parent of an adult daughter who also has chosen to become an attorney. Her daughter graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 2007 and is working at a large firm in Washington, D.C. Mary Carrigan is active in her community through projects sponsored by her church; she has coached youth basketball; and she has served on Mecklenburg County Bar committees dealing with grievances and fee disputes between clients and local attorneys.