Born in Minneapolis as one of two, Mary Zimmerman grew up in Minnesota with her twin and another, younger disabled sister. Her family moved to the Sacramento area when she was a teenager, where she completed high school and went to the local junior college for a year. She graduated with a B.A. in Humanities from Raymond College, University of Pacific, obtained a lifetime California teaching certificate, and married her husband of 46 years, Richard La Paglia.

When her youngest started school, Ms. La Paglia taught adults, preparing them for entry level office positions. When the school closed, she worked as an Administrative Assistant at the local Area Agency on Aging. After a year of teaching special education to children in grades 2 through 4, Ms. La Paglia returned to the Area Agency, this time working part time in the behavioral health department, and part time in the legal department. Soon she was working full time in the legal department and went to night school to complete a paralegal program. This was her real introduction to law and culminated in her decision to attend law school.

Her children largely grown, Ms. La Paglia (now a grandmother) went to law school and graduated in the top third of her class at James E. Rogers College of Law, University of Arizona. She worked as a law clerk at the Superior Court in Pima County for a year, was admitted to the Arizona Bar during that time, and worked for three years in the Child Support Division of the Pinal County attorney’s Office. Beginning in January, 2008, she joined her husband in the practice of immigration law at their office in Eloy, Arizona. Her focus is primarily research and writing; she has written several appeals to the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the U.S. Supreme Court