Blank Rome’s Mary Vidas has built as strong a reputation as any divorce attorney in the region - a distinction all the more remarkable considering that, throughout her career, she’s maintained a large and varied caseload. Indeed, Vidas has for years been in great demand, representing clients from Cape May, New Jersey, to Lancaster and Scranton, Pa., and seemingly everywhere in between. A tough and exacting litigator and a prodigious worker, Vidas spends most of her professional time fighting for clients before judges - in custody cases, support matters, and all manner of divorce proceedings. Admirers say Vidas’s forceful personality took on, unflinchingly, the male-dominated world of trial law, all the while at Blank Rome, a 600-attorney firm where she could easily have been Mommy-tracked into obscurity.

Growing up near Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Vidas had plenty of mentors, including her father, owner of the Acme Piano Co., a longtime fixture of Philadelphia commerce. She went to Georgetown University, with an eye on entering the Foreign Service. She stayed in Washington, working two years at Georgetown’s Foreign Service School, but later returned home for law school. Her Family Law professor was Norman Perlberger, who at the time was a partner in Blank Rome’s matrimonial department; he spotted Vidas’ skills and potential; she joined the fast-growing firm in 1981. Perlberger and partner Len Dubin threw Vidas “into the fire” of trial work - “It was, ‘OK, you take the next witness, Mary,’ and they left you there to do it. What an education. I had great mentors.” Over the years she built on those early experiences, earning a reputation as a shrewd, well-prepared litigator, particularly in contentious custody cases. Rivals say she can’t be intimidated. In 1996 she was named a partner of the firm, which today has more than 600 lawyers and 14 offices. Today Vidas’ well-appointed Logan Square office has a welcoming feel, despite her frequent court appointments throughout the region: One day she appeared in Camden, N.J., in the morning and Norristown, Pa., in the afternoon.

Ms. Vidas and her husband, Edward Hazzouri, also an attorney, live in Haddonfield, New Jersey; they have two daughters, one is an attorney working in the political arena and the other is employed by TastyKake in their Sales and Marketing Department. Vidas enjoys theater with her family and friends, loves to play bridge, is a voracious reader and will engage in an occasional round of golf.