Mary Thorndal

Biographies

Born and raised in North Dakota, Mary Thorndal was the youngest and the only girl in a family of four. She learned the art of negotiation at the dinner table.

After college, Mary entered the US Army Nurse Corps where she served for a year in Vietnam at Pleiku in the Central Highlands. Returning home, she attended graduate school in Nursing at the University of Minnesota, graduating with a M.S.N.  She then taught  four years at the University of North Dakota and the University of Arizona before entering law school in California. She attended SOUTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW and graduated with honors in Moot Court.

Mary worked for Melvin Belli and Harney & Moore prior to taking the Bar. In 1985, upon the encouragement of her life partner, Veronica St. Claire, Mary opened her own law practice and specialized in plaintiff civil trial work.

She has been in a committed relationship with Veronica since 1982 and working with her for the majority of that time. They work well together and as Veronica says, she handles the back office and Mary the front.      

Veronica St. Claire manages the Law Offices of Mary Thorndal. She is of Scottish descent, born in England and raised in a small town in Shropshire where, as an "Air Force Brat", she learned early about being an outsider. After living in France she came to the United States to work at a United Nations delegation.

Veronica has a background in history, social work, and law. She owned a wholesale beer business before administrating Mary's legal practice for the past seventeen years.

She has lived with Mary Thorndal for nearly twenty years, enjoying their Chow Chow dog, Rufus, and their new puppy Zoë. She also loves contact with her eight grandchildren. Their relationship survived a major remodel of their house because they promised each other that "remodeling should be a fun experience" -- well, it was, most of the time.