Co-Chair of the Litigation Department, Mary Beth Hogan has a broad-gauged litigation and investigations practice that focuses on sensitive investigations for educational institutions, corporations and other organizations, including board-directed independent investigations of sexual abuse or harassment. Ms. Hogan’s work in this area also includes advising boards of corporations, educational institutions and nonprofits on #MeToo-related governance issues.
Ms. Hogan also represents clients involved in regulatory investigations and enforcement actions involving the Department of Justice, State Attorneys General, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, New York’s Department of Financial Services and other federal and state regulators.
Ms. Hogan is recognized as a leading lawyer and as one of the “Top 250 Women in Litigation” by Benchmark Litigation, which quotes one client as saying “Mary Beth has been efficient, responsive, proactive and expert in her work with us. She is conscious of our budget limitations and [is] very respectful.” She was also named in Crain’s inaugural list of “Leading Women Lawyers in New York City,” which recognizes “trailblazers who found multiple paths to excellence.”
Ms. Hogan is ranked as a leading lawyer in Chambers USA (2023), where clients highlight the “outstanding” “depth and breadth of her knowledge, experience, diplomacy and sensitivity.” She is said to be “very practical and wise” with “an unbelievable grasp of politics.” Clients have also praised her “top-notch skills in drafting and analysis,” describing her as “a fantastic and very deft lawyer who has handled a number of very high-profile investigations.” Ms. Hogan is also recommended for Financial Services (Litigation), International Litigation and Labor and Employment Disputes by The Legal 500 US (2023), which has described her as “intellectual, thorough and knowledgeable.”
The New York Law Journal named Ms. Hogan a “Top Women in Law” in 2016 and in 2015 she was named “Lawyer of the Year for Private Practice” for gender diversity in the profession by Chambers & Partners. Ms. Hogan was also recognized in Profiles in Diversity Journal’s “Women Worth Watching” issue (2014). She also received the Chambers USA Women in Law award for “Up and Coming Lawyer of the Year” for Litigation (2012) and received the “Law and Society” Award from New York Lawyers For the Public Interest in 2018. Rutgers Law School awarded her its 2014 “Distinguished Alumni Award” and also the Eric Neisser Public Service Award in 2006.
A respected author and sought-after speaker, Ms. Hogan featured in 2019 at New York University’s Program on Corporate Compliance and Enforcement, Practical Law Institute’s Hot Issues in Executive Compensation, New York City Bar Association’s panel on “New Strategies for Conducting Sexual Harassment Investigations and Litigation” and the National Association of Women Lawyers’ Annual Conference. She was also featured in a 2013 documentary on the New York Times website, “Great Expectations for Female Lawyers,” a follow-up from a 2001 New York Times Magazine article in which 21 women lawyers at Debevoise were profiled and interviewed about the career prospects for women in law firms.
Ms. Hogan is on the Board of Directors of Catalyst, where she serves on the Executive Committee and Chairs the Nominations and Governance Committee. She is also President of the Board of Directors of Nazareth Housing and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Armory Foundation, where she chairs the Governance Committee. Ms. Hogan is a former collegiate runner and currently competes as a nationally ranked age-group triathlete.
Ms. Hogan received her A.B. cum laude from Princeton University in 1985, and her J.D., with high honors, from Rutgers University in 1990, where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and the articles editor for the Women’s Rights Law Reporter. She clerked for the Hon. Gary S. Stein, Supreme Court of New Jersey (1990–1991).