Boland, Mary L.

PERSONAL:

Education: Lewis University, Romeoville, IL, B.A. (high honors), 1980; John Marshall Law School, Chicago, IL, J.D. (with distinction), 1983.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Cook County State's Attorney Office, 331 Daley Center, 50 W. Washington, Chicago, IL 60602. E-mail—mboland@cookcountygov.com.

CAREER:

Attorney and author. Cook County State's Attorney's Office, Chicago, IL, assistant state's attorney; U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, Washington, DC, consultant. Previously worked as a civil litigator in private practice and legal director for a statewide victim advocacy organization. Adjunct faculty member of Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL, and faculty member of Loyola University, Chicago.

MEMBER:

American Bar Association (chair of the Victims' Rights Committee).

WRITINGS:

Crime Victims' Guide to Justice, Sourcebooks (Naperville, IL), 1997, 2nd edition, Sphinx (Naperville, IL), 2001.

Your Right to Child Custody, Visitation, and Support, Sphinx (Naperville, IL), 2000, 4th edition, 2007.

Sexual Harassment: Your Guide to Legal Action: What You Should Know and What You Can Do, Sphinx (Naperville, IL), 2002.

Child Support: Your Complete Guide to Collecting, Enforcing, or Terminating the Court's Order, Sphinx (Naperville, IL), 2004, 2nd edition published as Child Support Made Easy: Your Complete Guide to Collecting, Enforcing, or Terminating the Court's Order, 2006.

Sexual Harassment in the Workplace, Sphinx (Naperville, IL), 2005.

Contributor to state and federal law publications. Crime Victims' Guide to Justice has been published in Spanish.

SIDELIGHTS:

Mary L. Boland is a lawyer and state's attorney who has written several consumer law books. In her first book, Crime Victims' Guide to Justice, Boland delves into how the legal system works in regard to the victim. She discusses various kinds of crimes and how victims, who often feel powerless, can get help. Alice Joyce, writing in Booklist, commented that the author "offers a valuable service by discussing … [various] issues."

Your Right to Child Custody, Visitation, and Support, focuses on child custody and visitation cases and includes a summary of child custody laws for each state. Referring to the text as "well-organized" in the Library Journal, Patrick Mahoney added that the book "does contain important information to help prepare parents."

In Sexual Harassment: Your Guide to Legal Action: What You Should Know and What You Can Do, Boland discusses various forms of sexual harassment and the various legal courses of action available to those who feel they are being sexually harassed. She also looks at sexual harassment from the business's viewpoint and includes various appendixes to help the consumer in the preliminary stages of the legal process. A California Bookwatch contributor called the book "an essential guide." Likewise, Barbara Jacobs, writing in Booklist, referred to Sexual Harassment in the Workplace as "a necessary reference."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, July, 1997, Alice Joyce, review of Crime Victims' Guide to Justice, p. 1780; January 1, 2006, Barbara Jacobs, review of Sexual Harassment: Your Guide to Legal Action: What You Should Know and What You Can Do, p. 28.

California Bookwatch, April, 2006, review of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace.

Library Journal, May 1, 2000, Patrick Mahoney, review of Your Right to Child Custody, Visitation, and Support, p. 134.