Ann McGinley grew up in Allentown, Pennsylvania, the third child in a family of four. Her mother was a homemaker and her father was a lawyer. McGinley attended college and majored in Spanish. She earned a master’s degree and taught in Spain for five years. Her brother and his wife were lawyers and she decided to go back to law school at the University of Pennsylvania. McGinley did a two year clerkship for a federal judge, doing research and drafting opinions. She met her husband-to-be during this time and they moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota.