Mary E. O’Byrne, Esq.
Mary E. O’Byrne, Esq.
Attorney
Families, financial advisors, accountants and other lawyers seeking assistance in planning for people with special needs know to reach out to Mary for her experience, advocacy and creativity as well as sound legal advice.
Mary’s practice focuses on special needs and estate planning for people with disabilities and their families, including asset protection and management, public benefits counseling, guardianship and alternatives, and other legal issues arising from disability and aging. Mary works frequently with personal injury attorneys when a plaintiff receiving public benefits receives a settlement or jury award, to counsel on the options for preservation of assets while protecting eligibility for benefits. Mary serves as trustee for many special needs trusts; she also serves as counsel for other trustees. Mary was the first Executive Director the First Maryland Disability Trust, Inc., a nonprofit trust company serving people with disabilities.
As an advocate, Mary was instrumental in Maryland’s enactment of protections for special needs trusts in 2011, now under the Maryland Trust Act. From 2013-2018, Mary led the national Special Needs Trust Advocates in meeting with the Social Security Administration; the Advocates’ efforts culminated in a significant update in that agency’s rules affecting special needs trusts in 2018. She served on Governor Larry Hogan’s (Maryland) ABLE Task Force in 2015. As the President of the national Special Needs Alliance (SNA) in 2021-2022, Mary and the SNA’s public policy committee recently advocated successfully for a small but mighty change in the federal tax law allowing a charity to be named as an ultimate beneficiary of a special needs trust funded with retirement accounts without adverse tax treatment.
As an educator, Mary has been a frequent and popular speaker for the Maryland State Bar Association and the Stetson College of Law Special Needs Trust Conference, as well as public and private schools, government offices and non-profit agencies serving people with disabilities on special needs planning, guardianship and alternatives and public benefits eligibility. She has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law.
Prior to becoming an attorney, Mary worked in health insurance and managed care for Kaiser-Permanente and the Columbia FreeState Health Plan.
Admitted
Maryland Supreme Court
Education
University of Maryland School of Law, J.D., Order of the Coif.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, M.B.A.
Yale College, B.A.
Licenses
Notary Public for the State of Maryland
Board Affiliations and Memberships
Special Needs Alliance, Board President 2021-2022. President Elect, 2020-2021, Vice President, 2019-2020, Treasurer, 2017-2019, Board Member, 2014- 2023.
NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Metro Baltimore, Board President 2019-2020; Board Member 2013-2019.
Planned Parenthood of Maryland, Board Member 1990-1995 and 2004-2006.
Member, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys; Trust and Special Needs Trusts Section.
Member, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, MD/DC Chapter.
Member, Maryland Bar Association, Elder Law and Disability Rights Section.
Member, Baltimore County Bar Association, Estates & Trusts Section.
Publications
Leaving a Home in Trust for a Child with Disabilities; Mary E. O’Byrne. Maryland State Bar Association Weekly, August 9, 2022.
Planning for People with Disabilities: Update on Recent Changes in Federal and State Law; Mary E. O’Byrne, Sage C. Hart, Victoria Lucido. Trial Reporter, Journal of the Maryland Association for Justice, Spring 2018.
Personal Injury Settlements and Veteran Benefits, Mary E. O’Byrne, Sage C. Hart; Trial Reporter, Journal of the Maryland Association for Justice, Winter 2013.
Directors’ Duty of Care to Monitor Information Systems in HMOS: Some Lessons from the Oxford Health Plan, 14 J.L. & Health 45 (1999-2000)
Awards
Member of the Year, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, MD/DC Chapter, 2011.
Selected to Maryland Super Lawyers List, 2017-2026
Named to Daily Record Powerlist for Estates & Trusts March 2026 Click Here >
Media
Featured, Continuing Education Keeps Attorneys Current, Informed.
The Daily Record 2016 Click Here >
The Daily Record 2023 Click Here >
Maryland Bar Journal article on attorneys with prior careers Click Here >