MARILYN BILLINGS McNAMARA believes that in order to meet the increasing legal needs of the state’s low-income clients, legal services organizations in NH could slightly change direction, perhaps offering more direct representation or increased hotline services. As the new executive director of Legal Advice & Referral Center, McNamara will play a key role in helping to determine that direction.

McNamara, an Amherst attorney with many years of involvement with the Bar’s Pro Bono program, took over as LARC’s executive director July 1, replacing Connie Boyles Lane, LARC’s founding executive director who left the organization to spend more time with her family. LARC provides information, legal advice and referral services to indigent NH residents, concentrating on the areas of family, consumer, housing and local welfare law.

A private practice attorney for over 20 years, McNamara said she is in an "assessing" period at her new job. "For the first three months I’ll assess what’s here and get a sense of where, if anywhere, we need to change," she said. "So far it’s going really well. There’s a very dedicated staff here and lots of support from the legal community." But McNamara said she also realizes that there is "lots to be done" to meet the goal of providing high-quality legal services to the state’s poor.

McNamara believes the challenge of her new job, and of providing legal services in general, is "giving as much service with the least amount of money possible." She said that LARC must always be experimenting, be willing to try out new programs or delivery methods in order to provide the best services possible with a limited budget. "We have to be on the cutting edge of programming for legal services – on the forefront, ready to experiment, and sometimes fail, to provide efficient, high-quality legal service programs," McNamara said. "There is always that tug-and-pull: Is the service we provide high quality and do we provide enough of it?"

One way that the state’s legal services agencies can be effective is with the continued support of judges, McNamara believes. A member of the governor’s new Judicial Selection Commission, McNamara is well aware of the role judges play in ensuring that all parties get a fair day in court. "They need to understand the challenges low-income people face, as well as the legal services attorneys who represent them: dealing with child care issues, lack of transportation, things like that," she said. "The judiciary should be, and is, supportive of our efforts and open to collaboration and discussion about a process that will help us all."

What McNamara is most looking forward to as LARC’s executive director is the chance to work collaboratively with the state’s other legal services organizations. "It’s an opportunity to continue this wonderful relationship between groups like NHLA (New Hampshire Legal Assistance), the Pro Bono program, LARC and the Disabilities Rights Center in continuing statewide collaborative planning," said McNamara. "The groups work together to cover as many of the legal needs (of low-income clients) as we can," she said. The state’s legal services providers will meet in the fall to resume statewide planning, according to McNamara.

Such collaborative statewide planning helps NH’s legal services organizations determine which direction they should take to meet their clients’ ever-changing needs. McNamara believes that the current client demand may require a combination of additional services. "We have to make the decision whether to provide more private representation, more clinics and educational opportunities or additional hotline services," McNamara said. "I think it’ll probably be a combination of all three," she said.

McNamara’s passion for public service is rooted in her upbringing, she said. Her father was a YMCA executive and McNamara spent her childhood living on Association Island, a YMCA-owned island and conference center. She was constantly surrounded by people for whom social service was a way of life. "It was built into me that giving back is what you do. It was an element of my culture," she said.

After graduating from the University of New Hampshire in 1971, McNamara worked as a social worker for NH for three years. Then she went to law school "with the belief that being a lawyer is a social service occupation," she said.

McNamara graduated from Franklin Pierce Law Center in 1977, the same year she was admitted to the NH Bar. During law school she volunteered as a clerk/paralegal at NHLA.

For a year after graduating from law school, McNamara co-directed FPLC’s Family and Housing Law Clinic. In 1978 she went into private practice, opening a solo firm in Lebanon. She started with a general practice and gradually began to concentrate on family law. McNamara remained in private practice until taking the position with LARC.

Attorney Mark Larsen joined her firm in 1979, forming McNamara & Larsen. Many partners came and went over the years; the firm evolved into what is today Schuster, Buttrey & Wing.

McNamara has served as a Pro Bono volunteer attorney since the program’s inception and chaired the Pro Bono board for the past four years or so. She also served on the Bar’s Board of Governors for several years.

McNamara left private practice to become LARC’s director because it gives her the opportunity to share her skills as a lawyer and creative thinker, as well as her enthusiasm for social service. "It’s something I can do that is constructive, that pulls on my skills as someone with creative ideas who likes to implement those ideas," McNamara said. "It gives me the ability to plan programs and pass on what I know as a lawyer."

As director of LARC, McNamara will be one step removed from the courtroom, but she doesn’t expect to leave those hallowed halls entirely. She said that a possible increase in direct representation by legal services agencies and training or education programs would give her the chance to return to a courtroom. "I’ll miss it, but I’ll never be separated from the teaching that takes place in the court," she said.

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