About Laura
Laura McDermott trained in Maine and built her legal life in Arizona. She studied psychology as an undergraduate and returned to law school a few years later. The path from Orono to Florence runs through county courthouses and bar committee rooms.
She earned a B.A. in Psychology from the University of Maine at Orono in 1987. She stayed in Maine for law school and received her J.D. from the University of Maine School of Law in 1995. Those years in Maine provided a foundation in both legal theory and practical courtroom work.
McDermott moved into public service in Arizona. In 1999 she joined the Maricopa County Lawyer’s Office as a deputy county lawyer. The position placed her in the center of day-to-day legal work for a large county government. In 2008 she took a similar role in the Pinal County Lawyer’s Office in Florence, where she continued advising county departments and handling matters brought before local courts.
After nearly two decades of government service, she opened her own practice. In 2013 she established McDermott Law Office, PLLC. The firm operates from a Florence office. Running a small firm required shifting from a government lawyer’s bench to the broader responsibilities of firm management and client development.
Her professional affiliations reflect a mix of local bar participation and work on issues that cross tribal and criminal law. She has been a member of the State Bar of Arizona since 1999 and belongs to the Pinal County Bar Association. She served on the Criminal Rules and Procedures Committee of the Arizona State Bar. She has been involved with DNA People’s Legal Services, Inc., including time on its board, and holds membership ties to the Passamaquoddy Tribal community.
Colleagues and court records show a career spent in county government and in organizations that serve tribal populations. That background has given her repeated exposure to procedural rules, county legal matters, and the intersection of tribal and state legal systems. She now practices from her Florence office under McDermott Law Office, PLLC, handling county-level legal work, criminal rules matters, and issues affecting tribal clients.
