Maryland Lawyer Blog

The Maryland Daily Record has an article in its Maryland Lawyer section today underscoring what I think we already know: it is a tough legal market in 2009. This article focuses on the lack of associates making partner in Baltimore law firms.

Interesting, if you look at the numbers which the Daily Record provides with a pretty cool chart, the number of people making partner has not gone down that dramatically. But what you don't know is the number of these partners that are non-equity partners, which basically means you are an associate with the firm and you have been here a while, so we will call you partner, but you are not an actual shareholder in the firm. The non-equity partner trend has been huge over the last 10 years as big law firms join the rest of the world in running their business like a business. Of course, it also does not include the number of lawyers who made equity partner, but the firm is so under budget they would have made more as an associate.

Another thing in this article that really stood out to me: only ten lawyers in Piper DLA's Baltimore office have made partner in the last four years. Over this same time period, the firm has added 237 partners to the firm. Yeah, Piper & Marbury came from Baltimore, but I guess Piper is long past its Maryland roots.

Related Posts

• Lawyer Salaries in Baltimore


• Impact of Economic Downturn on Maryland Lawyers


• Defense of Big Firm Life


• Why Personal Injury Firms are Rarely Big


• Up to 20 DLA Piper Lawyers and Staff in UK May Lose Their Jobs (December 2, 2008 article in the ABA Journal)


• Changes in Piper DLA's Partnership Track (18 tiers of partner?)

On Friday, the Maryland Injury Lawyer Blog wrote a post about an article in Time Magazine about auto accident lawsuits from 1964. This story in USA Today is sounds like it was written in 1964. A flight attendant is suing JetBlue Airways and Delta Air Lines because she was not able to board a Delta flight because a JetBlue employee said her outfit wasn’t sexy enough. When she complained above, no one intervened. She received a right to sue letter last year from the EEOC. Delta's in the lawsuit because Delta has an agreement for JetBlue to ferry Delta flight attendants to job assignments.

Obviously, these are just allegations. I'm not surprised when any individual employee does anything. There are a lot of folks in supervisory positions that are not playing with all 52 cards. But I would be surprised if management at JetBlue did not respond to these allegations. Because they scream "lawsuit" and "bad publicity."

News from around the web that may be of interest/amusement to Maryland lawyers still depressed about the Ravens:

Above the Law reports on Muzeview’s rankings of law firm visibility on the Internet. Here are the rankings:
1 Jones Day
2 Mayer Brown
3 Miller & Zois
4 Baker & McKenzie
5 McDermott, Will & Emery
6 Greenberg Traurig, P.A.
7 Morrison & Foerster
8 Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
9 Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
10 WilmerHale
11 Kirkland & Ellis
12 Latham & Watkins
13 White & Case
14 Sidley Austin
15 Hogan & Hartson
16 Dechert
17 Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
18 Weil, Gotshal & Manges
19 O'Melveny Myers
20 Shearman & Sterling
21 Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld
22 Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
23 Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton
24 Sullivan & Cromwell
25. Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Isn’t that crazy? We are number #3! Who knew? Oh, wait, maybe I replaced Piper DLA with Miller & Zois. That would be a little less crazy.

Nothing is surprising here. The Internet is dominated by big law firms and this “study” confirms what we already knew.

Baltimore Mayor Sheila Dixon was indicted today for perjury, theft, fraudulent misappropriation and misconduct. Mayor Dixon is expected to appear at a new conference with her lawyer Arnold M. Weiner this afternoon.

The crazy thing Mayor Dixon - by most accounts - has been doing a fantastic job as Mayor of Baltimore.

Just when Baltimore was starting to shed its "The Wire" rap....

You can find the Baltimore Sun story here.

Apparently laptops help law students, according to this study. At this point, almost everybody seems to have one. The study's conclusion might be a bit flawed: perhaps there is a relationship between going through the trouble of getting a laptop and bringing it to class and how seriously you take law school. Still, this is an interesting study.

If you are a student of mine and you think I don't know that many of you are texting your friends and surfing the Internet while pretending to type away, you would be wrong. Sometimes, I roam around when I'm teaching and there are always a few students shuffling around with the "you walked in on me while I was looking at porn" expression on their faces when I get an angle on their computers.

The Maryland Daily Record reports that the number of docketed complaints of lawyer misconduct fell by nearly 24 percent in the final six months of 2008, compared to the same period in 2007. Maryland Bar Counsel Mel Hirshman called the statistically significant fall in client criticism "unexpected" in this time of economic turmoil because complaints against Maryland lawyers tend to increase during economic turbulence for two reasons: (1) clients are unable to pay their attorneys’ fees which sours relationships and (2) Maryland lawyers who feel compelled to nibble into IOLTA accounts because they are behind on their own bills.

Maryland personal injury lawyers are immune from the former and largely immune from the latter simply because money typically does not sit for extended periods of time in IOLTA accounts in most personal injury cases. In fact, the number of complaints fell sharply in personal injury and property damage cases, to 37 percent - down from 48 percent a year earlier.

Three possible reasons for this: (1) lawyers are becoming more ethical and this is leading to a drop in complaints; (2) in a poor economy, people have less energy to spend on anger and spite because they are more concerned with their economic situations, leading to fewer complaints - valid or invalid - that their lawyers are jerks, unresponsive, etc.; or (3) it’s just a statistical anomaly.

Continue reading " Complaints about Maryland Lawyers Fall " »

Thomas D. Murphy, a Principal with the Rockville law firm Murphy & Mood, P.C. has been named President-Elect nominee of the Maryland State Bar Association. He will run for election this June during the MSBA Annual Meeting, along with Treasurer John Patrick Kudel, a solo practitioner in Rockville and Of Counsel to the Rockville law firm of Karp, Frosh, Lapidus, Wigodsky & Norwind, P.A., and Secretary-Elect Henry E. Dugan, Jr., a partner in the Baltimore County law firm Dugan, Babij & Tolley, LLC. Thomas C. Cardaro, a partner in the Baltimore City law firm of Cardaro & Peek, LLC, will be installed as President at the 2009 MSBA Annual Meeting. Murphy will be MSBA President in 2010-2011.

The Severna Park Fitness and Health Blog reports that Harbor Nautilus in Westminster has been charged with a number of violations of Maryland’s Heath Club law. Many consumers have trepidations about health and fitness clubs taking money out of their accounts electronically every month. This is a reminder that it is worth it to look at your bank statements every month. This might be a statement of the obvious but I think an alarming number of consumers in Maryland do not.

The tough thing about a case like this is that a lawyer is not going to touch it with a ten foot pole because the economics involve such small amounts of money. Accordingly, the state of Maryland is really the first and last resource to protect consumers.

Last week, Laura Zois wrote about a Baltimore Examiner’s report that Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Robert M. Bell would propose that judges give up vacation leave as a way of helping with Maryland's budget crisis.

The Maryland Daily Record reports today that a unanimous Maryland Court of Appeals approved the reduction for Maryland judges. “You have said to the people of the state of Maryland that the judges are not a breed apart,” Judge Bell said after the vote which reduced vacation days for Maryland judges in 2009 from 27 to 22. (I assume it is a one year plan.) The estimated savings - mostly in money that would have been paid to retired judges who will be needed a little bit less - will be $685,078.

Maryland judges who are taking the hit seem pleased to do their part. “As a bench, we think it fitting that the judges show leadership and support of this effort” to address the “severe economic challenges” facing Maryland, wrote Baltimore City Judge Marcella A. Holland. Prince George’s County Circuit Judge Sean D. Wallace supportively added that no one “joins the judiciary for the money."

Obviously, this is not a big savings for a problem that exceeds a billion dollars but I think this is an important symbolic gesture from the Maryland judiciary that sends a message to everyone that sacrifices are going to have to be made.