Maria Quinn is an expert at building legacies for others — both in her professional and personal life. Specializing in estate planning for more than 25 years, Quinn is president and managing attorney of her own firm, as well as chief counselor, caregiver and role model to dozens of friends, colleagues and clients she's met through the many organizations in which she is involved.
"You name a group, I'm involved in it," quips Quinn. She is an advisory board member to the American Cancer Society, the Cleveland Foundation, University Hospitals, Hathaway Brown and the University of Akron, among others.
One group close to her heart — and her practice — is Leave a Legacy in Cuyahoga and Summit counties, of which she is a founding member. The group encourages people to consider planned gifts to charitable or nonprofit organizations.
"I give millions away when I do estate planning," Quinn says. "It may not be my money, but I talk to people about leaving a gift in their wills or their trusts, giving things to charity. I want people to know the value and virtues of leaving something of yourself behind."
As a co-op student at Euclid High School, Quinn's excellent shorthand eventually landed her a job as a legal secretary for the City of Euclid's law director office. It was there she was encouraged to go to law school. "They said I was doing the [same type of] work anyway and if I got a law degree they would make me an assistant law director," she says.
After earning her law degree and spending several years in her promised position, Quinn later joined Hahn, Loeser & Parks. In 1996, in the midst of a divorce and raising two children, Quinn received a devastating diagnosis: She had stage-three colorectal cancer.
Battling cancer gave Quinn a deeper understanding for others at the end stages of their lives, many of whom come to her for legal counseling. In 2004, Quinn opened her private practice, specializing in estate-planning services.
Today, her firm is a testament of her efforts to support women. Quinn's more than 1,200 clients are taken care of by herself, two other attorneys and two paralegals — all of whom she's mentored and helped advance their professional careers. It's her way of giving back to the community and the people who have helped her. In fact, one of her attorneys, Julie Fischer, is the daughter of her first boss from the Euclid law director's office.
"I live by two mottos: the glass is always half full, not half empty and treat people the way I want to be treated," Quinn says. "Those have served me well in life and in my business."