[2] After attending St. Michael's Parochial School, McElligott began working as a wagon boy for Stern Bros. at the age of 15.
After another year there, he began attending the Manual Labor School at Notre Dame University in Indiana.
He spent another two years attending as a regular student, receiving a law degree from Notre Dame in 1902.
After graduating, he returned to New York City, where he worked as a clerk in a law office and was admitted to the bar in 1904.
[13] In 1925, McElligott and an attorney named Flannigan bought the law practice of LeRoy M. Young.