Career Milestones

• Argued three cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.
• Litigated series of Voting Rights Act lawsuits that brought the first African-American officeholders to many Maryland town and county councils.
• Professor of Law, University of Maryland School of Law, 1975-2005, Emeritus 2006 to present.
• Maryland "Top 50 Super Lawyers."
• Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Practice Areas

Appeals, Civil Litigation, Mediation, Public Interest Litigation

Education

• Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., 1968; Editor in Chief, Georgetown Law Journal
• University of Delaware, M.A., 1965
• Swarthmore College, B.A., 1963

Clerkship

• Motions Clerk, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, 1968-69

Representative Cases

• Cane v. Worcester County, 840 F. Supp. 1081, 847 F. Supp. 369 (D. Md. 1994), aff'd in part, rev'd in part, 35 F.2d 921 (4th Cir. 1994), 874 F. Supp. 695 (D. Md. 1995), aff'd, 59 F.3d 165 (4th Cir. 1995), cert. denied, 518 U.S. 1016 (1996) (the Supreme Court's denial of certiorari in June 1996 marked the end of 250 years in which no African-American had been elected to public office in Worcester County on Maryland's Eastern Shore).
• Richwind Joint Venture 4 v. Brunson, 335 Md. 661, 645 A.2d 1147 (1994), aff'g in part, rev'g in part 96 Md. App. 330, 625 A.2d 326 (1993) (setting the legal standard for landlord liability for the injuries of children poisoned by lead paint).
• Matthews v. Lucas, 427 U.S. 495 (1976), rev'g 390 F. Supp. 1310 (D.R.I. 1975), and Norton v. Matthews, 427 U.S. 524 (1976), aff'g 390 F. Supp. 1084 (D. Md. 1975) (3-judge court) (the sequel to a series of cases concerning illegitimate children who had been denied government benefits solely due to their parents' failures to marry).

Affiliations

• ACLU of Maryland, General Counsel
• American College of Trial Lawyers, Fellow
• Baltimore Neighborhoods, Inc., Board
• Maryland Bar Foundation Fellow
• Rule Day Club

Publications

• Series of essays concerning the appellate process: Daily Record (1999 to present)
• "A Search for Clarity and Consistency in Judicial Process: The Maryland Court of Appeals Decides Whether to Change Common-Law Rules," 62 Md. L. Rev. 599 (2003)
• "Democracy's Incursion into the Eastern Shore: the 1870 Election in Chestertown," 89 Md. Hist. Mag. 338 (1994)
• "Maryland's First Political Convention by and for Its Colored People," 88 Md. Hist. Mag. 324 (1993)
• Introduction to Maryland Civil Litigation (Michie/Bobbs-Merrill, 1982)
• "The Law-Equity Dichotomy in Maryland," 39 Md. L. Rev. 427 (1980)
• "Summary Judgment in Maryland," 38 Md. L. Rev. 188 (1979)
• "Illegitimacy and Veterans' Benefits Legislation," 21 Howard L.J. 421 (1978)