Professor of Law, Emerita
Dean Joseph Curtis Faculty Fellow
Education
J.D., with distinction, Duke University, 1974
B.A., University of Pennsylvania, 1971
Areas of Expertise
Copyright Law
Evidence Law
Professor Mclain joined the faculty in 1977 after being a litigation associate of Piper and Marbury in Baltimore and a John S. Bradway Fellow in clinical legal education at Duke University. From 1988 to 1993 she served as a special reporter to the Rules Committee of the Maryland Court of Appeals on the state's rules' evidence codification project.
Professor Mclain is the author of the three-volume treatise, Maryland Evidence: State and Federal. She is a member of the Maryland Bar Association and a frequent presenter on federal and state evidence law. She has pursued state legislative reform regarding witness intimidation, child abuse, rape, the slayer's rule, bribery and legislative privilege, and sewage sludge storage.
Selected Publications
Books and Book Chapters
Maryland Evidence: State and Federal (Thomson Reuters 3d ed. 2013).
Maryland Rules of Evidence (Thomson Reuters 4th ed. 2013-2014).
Evidence Law Analyzed: Principles, Problems, and Cases Under the Federal and Maryland Rules , Vandeplas, (2d ed. 2012)
Articles and Essays
"Sweet Childish Days": Using Developmental Psychology Research in Evaluating the Admissibility of Out-of-Court Statements by Young Children, 64 Me.L.Rev. 78-117 (2011)
"I'm Going to Dinner with Frank": Admissibility of Nontestimonial Statements of Intent When Their Relevance Is to Prove the Actions of Someone Other Than the Speaker, 32 Cardozo L. Rev. 373-435 (2010)
Stop the Killing: Potential Courtroom Use of a Questionnaire that Predicts the Likelihood that a Victim of Intimate Partner Violence Will Be Murdered by Her Partner, 24 Wis. J. Gender, Law & Soc'y 277-312 (2009) (co-authored with Amanda Hitt)
Post-Crawford: Time to Liberalize the Substantive Admissibility of a Testifying Witness's Prior Consistent Statements, 74 U.M.K.C. L.Rev. 1-41 (2005)
Thoughts on Dastar from a Copyright Perspective: A Welcome Step toward Respite for the Public Domain, 11 U. Balt. Intellectual Prop. L.J. 71-91 (2002/2003)
Reforming the Criminal Law: University of Baltimore School of Law Group Goes to Annapolis, 34.1 U. Balt. L.F. 2-20 (2003)