Paula Finley Mangum is a solo practitioner concentrating in family law. Throughout her legal career Paula has been an active participant in a variety of programs that provide pro bono legal services, including ARC (Attorneys Representing Children), SERV (Settlement and Early Resolution Volunteers), the Women’s Bar Foundation, the Volunteer Lawyers Project, and the Victim Rights Law Center. She currently serves as a guardian ad litem and certified conciliator in the Probate and Family Courts.
Paula received her JD from Boston College Law School. She began her career as a law clerk to the Justices of the Massachusetts Superior Court and later became an assistant district attorney in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Paula then established her own law practice and also worked as interim legal director at the Victim Rights Law Center in Boston.
Paula has presented at programs on domestic violence and sexual assault at national conferences supported by the Office on Violence Against Women of the U.S. Department of Justice. She taught family law as an adjunct professor at Suffolk University Law School and legal writing at New England Law – Boston. She served as a commissioner on the State Ethics Commission, appointed by Governor Deval Patrick in 2010.
As an Access to Justice Fellow, Paula will work with the Family Law Project (FLP) of the Women’s Bar Foundation. The FLP recruits, trains, and mentors lawyers who provide pro bono assistance to low-income survivors of domestic violence in their family law cases. Paula will provide specialized mentoring of more difficult cases and will work on special projects and educational programs that support practitioners who take FLP cases. The Women’s Bar Foundation is dedicated to ensuring access to justice for low-income women, by creating a community committed to providing free legal counseling and full representation in civil legal matters that disproportionately affect low-income women and children.