This guest post was written by Margie Palladino ’85, Executive Director of Mass Family Advocacy Coalition (MFAC) and candidate to serve on the Governor’s Council for Massachusetts.
Boston College Law School teaches the practice of law in the Jesuit tradition of service to others. Of all the lessons I learned there, one has stayed with me throughout my life: our legal system does not affect everyone equally.
As a law student, I was taught that people who are marginalized or lack resources can experience our justice system very differently. When you don’t have the money, the support, or even the “right-color” skin, justice can be much harder to reach.
That lesson planted a seed. I just didn’t pay much attention to it at the time.
Like many law students, I had other plans. I aspired to become a high-powered litigator at a high-powered law firm, wearing high-powered suits.
And for many years, I did.
Once in that high-powered world of law, I was warned by other high-powered attorneys to stay away from family court. It was often described as the “Wild West” of our legal system—a place where the rules and outcomes were unpredictable.
Understandably (to me at least), I wanted no part of it.
Then, decades later, life had other plans.
I found myself in family court—not as an attorney, but as a party. By then, I had traded my high-powered suits for the everyday clothes of motherhood.
When I emerged from that “Wild West” experience, I made a promise to myself: I would do what I could to improve the system.
One question kept nagging at me: If this was my experience—with a legal education and the good fortune to be represented by counsel—what was happening to people who didn’t have those advantages?
And why did I even think to ask that question?
I finally allowed that seed planted all those years earlier at BC Law to grow.
I set out to find other mothers asking many of the same questions about their family court experience, and together we began a journey to reclaim a different kind of power—not the kind I had imagined as a law student, measured by prestigious firms, expensive suits, and billable hours. This kind of power came from bringing people together, asking questions, looking for patterns, and refusing to accept that something couldn’t change simply because it had always been done that way.
That journey eventually led me to co-found the Mass Family Advocacy Coalition (MFAC) to improve the family court system on behalf of women, children, and domestic abuse survivors. Today, I work with other attorneys and advocates on court reform, write amicus briefs to our appellate courts, and collaborate with lawmakers on laws to protect against domestic abuse.
Along the way, I also came to understand just how much judges matter. Laws can be thoughtfully written, but judges often have wide discretion in how they apply them, and outcomes can vary depending on which judge you have. That realization is part of what led me, unexpectedly even to myself, to run for Governor’s Council, the body that helps decide who will serve as judges throughout Massachusetts. I want to help ensure that we have judges who apply our laws consistently and impartially—and who understand the impact their conduct and decisions have on the people before them.
As I unfortunately did as a young attorney, it can be easy to look at a situation that is not working, like family court, and decide its problems are too difficult, too messy, or simply “not my problem.” It can be easy to label cases as “too complicated” or “high-conflict” without looking more closely to see if someone is using the legal system itself as a means of causing harm.
But I have learned something else along the way: joining together to advocate for change is how problems that once seemed intractable begin to change.
It is how patterns replace anecdotes.
It is how voices that have been dismissed become harder to ignore.
It is how ordinary people can create extraordinary change—by listening, believing, amplifying, questioning, and insisting that our laws and courts do better.
If everyone turns away because a problem seems too difficult to fix, nothing changes.
My BC Law education taught me that the people most affected don’t always have the luxury of walking away. Neither should those of us with the education and ability to help.
I never set out to become an advocate. In many ways, advocacy found me. An experience I never expected to have turned into a commitment to helping ensure that others are seen, heard, and treated fairly by our justice system.
And when I look back now, I realize there may have been nothing accidental about it after all.
The seed was planted when I was a student at BC Law. It just took several decades—and trading the high-powered suits for everyday mom clothes—for me to finally let it grow.
Margie Palladino ’85 is a retired commercial litigator, a small-business owner, and Executive Director of Mass Family Advocacy Coalition (MFAC). Through advocacy, collaboration, and education, MFAC works to strengthen the family court system for all. Margie is currently running to serve on the Governor’s Council for Massachusetts. Learn more about her at her website.
BC Law: Impact 