August 2019
The MLO Minute
As our firm celebrates our new name of McAndrews, Mehalick, Connolly, Hulse, Ryan, and Marone, we are spotlighting our named partners and celebrating their numerous achievements. These individuals are highly accomplished in our profession and are deeply valued in our firm as a result of their long and successful tenure in our legal family. Previously known as “McAndrews Law Offices, P. C.,” the firm is nationally recognized in the fields of special education, special needs planning, estate planning, and elder law. The firm has become one of the largest law firms in suburban Philadelphia, and also maintains offices in Scranton, Wyomissing, Wilmington, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Alexandria (Virginia), and Georgetown (Delaware).
As stated by Dennis McAndrews, the Founder and Managing Partner of our firm, “Katie has been an indispensable colleague since she joined our firm as our Chief Executive Officer. The smooth operation of a law firm is essential, especially one like ours with five full-time offices, two part-time offices, and a large contingent of attorneys, paralegals, and support staff. Katie’s management is critical to allowing our talented professionals to devote their full energies to serving the needs of the families we represent. Katie’s extensive experience in firm management allows our executive team and attorneys the freedom to manage their workload with the dedication that our legal cases require. Moreover, Katie’s extensive experience in complex litigation provides critical insights, support, and collaboration in addressing our extensive, and often complex, cases in the federal and state courts. We are deeply fortunate to have Katie as our CEO.”
Katie has been an attorney for 33 years and brought 25 years of law firm management experience to the firm. She previously managed her own highly successful law firm, was a founding partner in two law firms, and was a litigation/supervisory partner in another large firm. Katie has litigated highly complex and challenging matters for over three decades in multiple courts throughout the country, and she participated in numerous successful settlements of major class action litigation.
Katie Ryan states that “Caitlin is unique in that she works in both the Special Education Department and Estates and Trusts Department at our firm. These two areas of practice involve very different sets of skills, management responsibilities, and professional training. We did not ask Caitlin to work in both departments, but rather she requested an opportunity to do so early in her time at the firm, as she felt that she could assist clients in both areas, especially in geographic areas where few, if any, attorneys practice in either of these areas of legal work. Caitlin is also extraordinary in that she is admitted to practice law in no less than five jurisdictions – Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Washington D.C., and Pennsylvania. This number of bar memberships (to say nothing of the several bar exams required to be admitted) is highly unusual, and offers our firm substantial flexibility in addressing the educational and estate planning needs of clients throughout the mid-Atlantic region. Caitlin is not only talented and hard-working, but is highly collegial with our clients and is a wonderful collaborative presence in our firm.”
