Mary Lavery Flynn is a consultant on access to justice issues and author of the recent ABA report, “Access to Justice Commissions: Increasing Effectiveness Through Adequate Staffing and Funding.” From 1992-2014, she worked at the State Bar of California, primarily as the director of the Office of Legal Services. In that role, she helped launch the California Commission on Access to Justice and was the primary staff director of the Access Commission for its first 17 years. She was also responsible for coordinating the successful 1999 effort to establish the Equal Access Fund, a $10 million annual state appropriation–the first state funding for legal services in California. A graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, Mary began her career as an associate with Lillick, McHose & Charles in San Francisco. From 1980-1992, she was the executive director of the Public Interest Clearinghouse, a state support center for legal aid programs. During 38 years of work on legal services issues, Mary has done extensive consulting with legal services and IOLTA programs across the country, has served as president of the Legal Aid Association of California, and was a board member for the Bar Association of San Francisco, Voluntary Legal Services Program, and San Francisco Neighborhood Legal Services. She was the 2012 recipient of the Judicial Council’s Bernard E. Witkin Amicus Curiae Award recognizing her outstanding contributions to the courts of California; she has also received awards from the Bar Association of San Francisco, the California Legal Services Trust Fund Commission, and the Public Interest Clearinghouse.