A Messsage from the Chapter President

We are always interested in ideas about programs that will help meet the needs of federal practitioners in this area, and of course we are also constantly looking for volunteers to help put those programs together. Please contact me if you have ideas or would like to volunteer. If you have something you’d like to submit for our chapter newsletter, contact Lee Rauch at 410-752-9700, lrauch@tydingslaw.com; or Jim Nolan at 410-887-4420, jnolan@co.ba.md.us. We are particularly interested in receiving occasional pieces on recent cases of interest from either the District Court or the Fourth Circuit. Finally, we’re always delighted to hear from younger lawyers who would like to get involved and become more active members of the Maryland Federal District Court Bar.

Abbey G. Hairston
Maryland Chapter President

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Calendar of Events

March 19, 2008
Negotiation, Mediation, and Settlement: A Discussion with Hon. Paul W. Grimm
Time: 5:30 p.m.
Location: Garmatz Courthouse, Courtroom 1A
RSVP: Please RSVP to pnothstein@zuckerman.com


 
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Recent Events

February 1, 2008
"Garner Versus . . . " The Trial of a Young Slave Mother
Presented by the Maryland Chapter of the FBA
Members of our federal court, members of Maryland state courts and esteemed counsel will re-enact the trial of Margaret Garner, a slave who escaped from capitivity with her family, hunted down by her slaveowner and law enforcement officials and tried for violatng the Fuguitive Slave Act. This true story was recently re-enacted as an opera in New York at the Lincoln Theatre and now we are bringing it to you in the federal court forum.
Time: 5:00 p.m. Reception to follow.
Location: Baltimore Federal Courthouse, 101 W. Lombard Street, Ceremonial Courtroom, First Floor
Cost: There is no charge for this event.
Registration: Seating is limited, please view flyer for registration information.

December 20, 2007
Holiday Open House for the U.S. District Court in Baltimore
Time: 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
RSVP: President of the Maryland Chapter, Abbey Hairston, at aghairston@verizon.net on or before December 12, 2007.

November 2, 2007
Fifth Biennial Bench-Bar Conference
Time: Registration, 2:30 p.m.; Program, 3–5:30 p.m.; Reception, 5:30–7 p.m.
Location: U.S. Courthouse, Baltimore
Registration: View Flyer for more details

October 12, 2007
30 YEARS LATER: HOW THE MANDEL TRIALS CHANGED MARYLAND AND THE COUNTRY
(Free Admission!)

The FBA Maryland Chapter and the University of Maryland Law School have organized an outstanding program to discuss and review the trials of former Governor Marvin Mandel on federal mail fraud and racketeering charges. Many of the key participants in those trials, along with members of the media who covered them will participate in panel discussions regarding political corruption investigations, changes in lobbying laws as a result of the trials and how lobbying, politics and journalism have changed since the trials.

Andrea Mitchell, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for NBC News, who covered the trial and its aftermath and Barry Rascovar, columnist for The Gazette of Politics and Business and a commentator for WYPR's "Inside Maryland Politics" will participate along with Maryland Judges, Attorneys and Lobbyists to provide a unique examination of how the Mandel trials impacted Maryland politics and influenced how political corruption investigations are conducted.

This is a rare opportunity for our members that should not be missed!!! This event is being held at the University of Maryland Law School, 500 West Baltimore Street, Baltimore, MD. The program begins at 1:00 p.m. and ends at 4:30 p.m. There are limited available seats remaining. If you would like to attend, please contact Cecilia Reilly at Zuckerman Spaeder LLP, (410) 332-0444; creilly@zuckerman.com.

July 20, 2007
Brown Bag Luncheon with Chief Judge Benson Everett Legg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland for Summer Associates and Law Clerks
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: 101 W. Lombard Street, Baltimore, Md.
Registration: Because space is limited (50 attendees) at each luncheon, have the representative from your firm RSVP to Ann Cahill, judicial assistant to Chief Judge Legg, at (410) 962-0723. The court will provide water, sodas and cookies for each luncheon; the summer associates and law clerks should bring their own lunches.

June 7, 2007
Annual Dinner
Sponsored by the Maryland Chapter
Speaker: Nina Totenberg, National Public Radio's award-winning legal affairs correspondent. 
We are privileged to have Nina Totenberg address the FBA. One of the premier reporters on legal matters and especially the Supreme Court, Totenberg's reports air regularly on National Public Radio's critically acclaimed newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition. Totenberg received the 1991 George Polk Award for excellence in journalism, as well as the Joan S. Baron Award for excellence in Washington-based national affairs/public policy reporting. She has received many other awards, and has been honored seven times by the American Bar Association for excellence in legal reporting. She has also reported extensively on the career of Justice Harry Blackmun, particularly after his papers were opened by the Library of Congress.
This should be a great event for FBA members.  We hope you can attend.  Additional details will follow. Contact Sharon A. Snyder, sasnyder@ober.com.

April 27, 2007
An Introduction to the Federal Courthouse and Special Admissions Ceremony to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland
Time: 1:30–4:30 p.m. (Registrants must be at the Courthouse by 1:00 p.m.)
Location: U.S. Courthouse, Courtroom 4-C, 6500 Cherrywood Lane, Fourth Floor, Greenbelt, Md.
Registration: Download flyer with registration form.

April 13, 2007 
Wine and Cheese Tasting
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: Corks Restaurant, 1026 South Charles Street, Baltimore, Md.
Cost: $15 FBA members; $30 nonmembers
Registration: RSVP to Jessica Straw, (410) 949-1153, jstraw@zuckerman.com

February 9, 2007: On Friday, February 9 at 9 a.m. in the Baltimore Courthouse, the FBA continued its highly successful sponsorship of the federal court’s “Open Doors” program. In the third year of this event, the FBA’s Maryland Chapter has joined forces with the federal bench to bring a real-life courtroom experience to students from six Baltimore-area high schools. Using lawyers and others to play the roles of prosecutors, defense counsel and witnesses, the presentation puts students into the jury box in front of six U.S. district magistrate and bankruptcy judges. This year’s program focused on the Supreme Court’s 2006 “knock-and-announce” decision in Hudson v. Michigan, and was led by FBA-Maryland Vice-President Geoff Genth.

February 11, 2005: Luncheon commemorating the service of U.S. District Court Judges Joseph Young, Alexander Harvey II, and Walter Black. This function was attended by approximately 250 members of the Federal District Court Bar.

March 18, 2005: Introduction to the Federal Courthouse for New Admittees (Northern Division Courthouse in Baltimore). This annual program involves an introduction to the procedures and personnel of Maryland’s Federal Court.

April 15, 2005: Introduction to the Federal Courthouse for New Admittees (Southern Division Courthouse in Greenbelt). Same as above.

May 19, 2005: Electronic Discovery Program. This program on issues posed by electronic discovery included participation by U.S. District Court Judge Peter Messitte; Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Jillyn K. Schulze; U.S. Magistrate Judges Paul Grimm, William Connelly, and Charles Day; and several practitioners and techincal specialists.

June 3, 2005: Swearing In Ceremony and Reception at the U.S. Courthouse in Baltimore for this past year’s federal judicial law clerks.

July 14, 2005: Program and Judicial Reception for Law Firm Summer Associates at the U.S. Courthouse in Baltimore.

Friday, September 30: Pro Bono Commemorative Program & Reception. This program recognized the contributions of attorneys who have accepted court appointments to represent indigent clients in civil or criminal cases pending before the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland in the last 5 years. Professor James W. Ellis of the University of New Mexico School of Law, who successfully persuaded a majority of the Supreme Court in Atkins v. Virginia (2002) to declare that executions of mentally retarded defendants violated the Eighth Amendment, was the featured speaker. Professor Ellis was the National Law Journal's "Lawyer of the Year" in 2003.

Friday, October 21: 4th Biennial Bench-Bar Conference of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland: Co-sponsored with the Court itself and the Maryland State Bar Association's Litigation Section Council.

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Chapter News and Notes

Course Material from Federal Appellate Practice Program Still Available
We still have approximately 20 copies remaining of the course materials from the last occasion in 2003 when we presented our program on “Federal Appellate Practice in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.” This 156-page volume includes extensive materials about the Fourth Circuit itself, as well as a number of articles about appellate practice and procedure more generally. It should be of use to anyone who regularly handles appellate matters in either state or federal court. If you are interested in receiving a free copy, contact our Chapter President, Jeff Gray, at Jefferson.M.Gray@usdoj.gov. First come, first served.

Maryland Board of Governors Member Ronald J. Tenpas Named Associate Deputy Attorney General
We are pleased to take note that Ronald J. Tenpas, a former and now renewed member of our Board of Governors, has been named Associate Deputy Attorney General of the U.S. Department of Justice, beginning his work in the Deputy Attorney General’s Office on November 14, 2005.
Ron served as a member of our Board of Governors while he was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Greenbelt Division of the Maryland U.S. Attorney’s Office, where he served from 1997-2003. In 2003 he was selected by Senator Peter Fitzgerald (R-Illinois) to become the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, a post he has now held for the past two years. In heading out to Illinois, Ron was following in the footsteps of his Greenbelt office colleague Jan P. Miller, whom Senator Fitzgerald had selected two years earlier as U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Illinois in Springfield. (Along with Rod J. Rosenstein, the new U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, no fewer than three U.S. Attorneys have now been selected from among the roughly twenty Assistant U.S. Attorneys [AUSAs] who served in the Greenbelt Office in the year 2000.) Upon his return to this area, we were delighted that Ron once again expressed an interest in serving on our Board, and we were delighted to accommodate him.
Ron’s latest move crowns what has already been an outstanding career in public service. A Rhodes Scholar who studied Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University, he then received his law degree at the University of Virginia and served as a law clerk to both Judge Louis H. Pollak of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist of the United States Supreme Court.
We’re glad to welcome Ron and his family back to this area, and wish him the best of luck in his new position!

Baltimore Sun Reports on FBA Involvement in Efforts to Construct a New Federal Jail in Maryland
A front-page story in the Baltimore Sun on Jan. 31, 2006 reported on the Maryland Chapter’s role in the renewed drive to construct a federal detention center to house the growing population of federal pre-trial detainees in Maryland, which has increased from 160 in 1995 to nearly 500 today. See “A New Push to Build Federal Jail in Maryland,” page A1. This effort is being led by our Chapter’s President-Elect, Cyril Smith, Esq. of the Baltimore office of Zuckerman Spaeder. As the article noted:
[A] working group of the Federal Bar Association’s Maryland chapter is circulating a draft report on the issue that concludes that Baltimore is the best location [for a federal detention center].
“The bottom line is, you’re paying for motel space for individuals [in county jails] when you know you’re going to have to house 500 people a day,” said Cy Smith, the Baltimore attorney leading the effort on behalf of the bar association.
“Instead of paying retail, you could build a facility yourself, make sure it’s a secure facility whose only purpose is to house federal prisoners and do it in a cost-effective way.”
His group’s draft report estimates that the legal system spends $15 million a year renting inmate space in other jails and prisons, including the state’s SuperMax prison just north of downtown Baltimore, and reimbursing marshals and defense attorneys for travel expenses.
The article went on to note that as a result of the lack of a secure, centrally located federal facility, prisoners accused of extremely serious crimes – many of whom have been ordered detained by Federal Magistrate Judges based on the risk they present of additional acts of violence – are routinely being shuttled lengthy distances all over Maryland to and from their appearances in federal court.
For more information on this issue, contact Cy Smith at csmith@zuckerman.com.

In Memoriam
George A. Brugger, 1941-2005
With sadness in his passing but pride in his accomplishments, we take note of the death on December 5, 2005 of George A. Brugger, a long-time member of the Board of Governors of the FBA’s Maryland Chapter. George was 64 years old and succumbed to a lengthy battle with cancer. He was a founding partner of Fossett & Brugger, Chartered in Silver Spring, where he practiced for 30 years. His principal practice focus was on real estate law – his Washington Post obituary noted that “he helped shape communities in Prince George’s and Charles Counties,” further adding that he “was part of a visionary group of people in the county who helped communities blossom where fields once dominated.” Beyond his law practice, however, George was distinguished by his outstanding commitment to public service and to improving the community where he lived.
He started his legal career in the 1960's working in the Justice Department, and during his years in private practice he served as head of the Prince George’s County Economic Development Corp. (1995-2001), working to attract new businesses to the area and to improve the county’s schools in the face of burgeoning population growth. He played a major role in the ultimately successful effort to construct a new federal Courthouse in Greenbelt, and among many other professional and community positions, served as a member of the Maryland Appellate Judicial Nominating Committee; a Governor of the Maryland State Bar Association; a member of the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission; and a variety of task forces for the Prince George’s County Government. His leisure-time interests included driving high-performance cars, raising exotic fish, and watching the dolphins and manatees swim behind his summer home in Vero Beach, Florida. We extend our condolences to George’s wife Ann; his three children, two stepchildren, and nine grandchildren; and to his colleagues at Fossett & Brugger.

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Chapter Newsletter

Congratulations to our newsletter editor, Sharon Snyder of Ober /Kaler, and to all who contributed to the newsletter this past year, thereby earning our chapter the Federal Bar Association’s Meritorious Newsletter Award in 2005!
We are always interested in receiving submissions for the chapter newsletter. Please contact Sharon Snyder at sasnyder@ober.com if you have an idea you’d like to discuss.

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Chapter Awards

Peter A. DiRito Award
This award commemorates the memory and contributions of Peter A. DiRito, a past chapter president, national delegate, and long-time member of the board of governors who was active in the Maryland Chapter from 1964-1987. This award is given annually “to recognize public service that comports with the goals of the chapter and Federal Bar Association,” which are defined in the FBA’s Mission Statement as “strengthen[ing] the federal legal system and administration of justice by serving the interests and needs of the federal practitioner, both public and private, the federal judiciary, and the public they serve.”
The 2005 recipient of the Peter A. DiRito Award was Donna M. Shearer, who has served as the Criminal Justice Act (CJA) Supervising Attorney at the U.S. District Court since 1997. The District of Maryland’s Criminal Justice Act (CJA) Panel is a group of lawyers who provide representation at greatly reduced rates to indigents accused of crimes when the Federal Public Defender’s Officer has a conflict of interest or is otherwise unable to handle the representation. The lawyers who do this work in the District of Maryland include some of the most accomplished members of the Maryland Bar, including now-District Court Judge Richard Bennett, who was an active panel member for years before becoming the panel’s first alumnus to join the federal bench. Shearer has been responsible for managing the assignment of cases to counsel and facilitating the payment and reimbursement of counsel for their efforts. In part because of her efforts to make the process as painless as possible for the attorneys who agree to accept CJA appointments, th District of Maryland has been able to continue to attract and retain the services of many of the best private criminal attorneys practicing in this area for the CJA Panel.

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Getting Involved

If you are interested in getting more involved in the Maryland Chapter of the FBA or have an idea for a program that you would like to present, please contact any of the chapter officers.

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Related Links

U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit

U.S. Supreme Court

Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (overall Web site for the Federal Judiciary)

U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland

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