Begley, Maria D.

Maria DeMarco Begley received her Bachelor of Arts, cum laude, from the City University of New York, Queens College, in 1973 and her Juris Doctor from St. John’s University, School of Law in 1977. She was admitted to the Bar in the State of New York and has practiced law for 42 years. Her practice of law areas of concentration include Elder Law, Guardians, Estate Planning, Estate Administration and Medicaid Planning.

 

Ms. Begley served as an adjunct professor at Long Island University, C.W. Post from 1996 to 2018, where she taught two courses, Legal Aspects of Health Care Administration and Legal and Ethical and Governance Issues in Nonprofit Organizations. In 2005 she served on the C.W. Post Advisory Council Committee for the MPA accreditation program required by NASPAA. In 2010 she was awarded the Adjunct Faculty Recognition Award.

 

Ms. Begley is active in many community service activities. She served on the Board of Directors for Support For People With Oral and Head and Neck Cancer (SPOHNC), a nonprofit organization. She is a former director of the Columbian Lawyers Association of Nassau County. She is a panel member of the New York State Surrogate Decision Making Committee sponsored by the New York State Commission on Quality of Care for the Mentally Disabled.

 

In 2016, Ms. Begley was honored by Hofstra Law School with the Outstanding Woman in the Law award by the Maurice A. Deane School of Law Center for Children, Families and the Law.

 

She is certified as an Elder Law Attorney by the American Bar Association’s Accredited National Elder Law Foundation. She is one of only 500 Certified Elder Law Attorneys (CELA) in the country.

 

She is AV rated by Martindale Hubbell and was named a Metro Area Super Lawyer in the area of Elder Law for 7 consecutive years, this a rating service sponsored by Thomson Reuters. Only 5% of attorneys in New York receive this distinction.