Mary Cushing Doherty
Montgomery County Family Law Attorney

Mary Cushing Doherty is a family law attorney and Of Counsel at High Swartz. She concentrates her practice on marital dissolution and a wide range of family law issues. An experienced and certified Arbitrator and Mediator, Ms. Doherty strives for the amicable resolution of divorce when possible; however, she is a zealous litigator when it serves her clients' best interests.

Some of Mary's noteworthy accomplishments include:

• She specializes in finding the optimal monetary settlement for complex marital cases. She works alongside financial experts and forensic accountants for high-income individuals and dependent spouses.
• She arbitrates complicated financial analysis matters to resolve monetary awards typically unobtainable in court.
• Drafts comprehensive and protective prenuptial agreements and marital settlement agreements by anticipating the problems that clients can't or haven't envisioned
• Drafts "romantic" prenuptial agreements that are designed to foster a long healthy marriage based on communication and shared values

Beginning her career in Philadelphia, she served as chair of the Philadelphia Bar Family Law Section in 1985 and as its representative on the Judicial Selection Commission. She was a co-chair of the Montgomery County Family Law Committee in 1994 and chair of the Pennsylvania Bar Association Family Law Section in 1999-2000.

Mary served as President of the AAML Pennsylvania Chapter from 2006 to 2007. After that, she served as Chapter Leader Coordinator from 2010 to 2013 and co-chaired the AAML Legislation Committee for several years. She will co-author her second law review article for AAML in 2024.

Mary has rightfully been honored over the years for her unparalleled community work and dedication to marital and family law. Super Lawyer consistently ranks her as a Top Lawyer in America®. She's also received honors as a Top Attorney in Suburban Life Magazine and an honoree in the Montgomery and Pennsylvania Bar Association. In 2012, she was a Legal Intelligencer Women of the Year recipient and PBA Lynette Norton Award honoree. In 2018, Mary received the prestigious honor of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Woman of the Year for the Philadelphia area and top state Advocate in 2023.

As an attorney, Ms. Doherty has enjoyed a distinguished career. She's been a Course Planner and Lecturer for The PBI (and served on its board for seven years), the Philadelphia Bar Association, and MBA Family Law Sections, and a Lecturer for the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML). She has been a spokesperson for legislative reform for the Pennsylvania Bar Association. The PBA has honored her for acting as its spokesperson for reform of the custody statute and the Divorce Code to ease lengths of no-fault divorce. She chaired the Supreme Court Committee on certification organizations that qualify lawyers as experts. She served on the Pennsylvania Domestic Violence Task Force. Plus, she participates in the PA Joint State Legislative Committee on Family Law.

Outside the Office

Mary's civic and community activities are varied and numerous. She chairs the Pennsylvania Advocacy Committee for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society addressing state and federal legislators to pass laws to help blood cancer patients and their caregivers and received the National Award as Outstanding State Leader in 2023 She's also serves on the BucksMont Light the Night Executive Committee.

She is active in her church, St. Catherine of Sienna, as a lector in Horsham. She also organizes the Holy Innocents memorial every Christmas in memory of infants children who have died and is an active supporter of the St. Vincent DePaul Society. She was an adjunct instructor in Child Development to Upper Dublin High School youth for 28 years. Mary has served as an Inn of Court mentor and Master of the Bench for Doris Jonas Freed Inn since its inception in 1995.