News Summary - 5/27

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), May 27, 2008

Duane Morris launches litigation practice in Baltimore office

Duane Morris LLP has started a litigation practice in its year- and-a-half-old Baltimore office.

The Philadelphia-based firm hired two litigators away from Ober, Kaler, Grimes & Shriver P.C. to start the new practice group: Ray M. Shepard, who started at Duane Morris in March, and Robert Hopkins, who started last week.

Shepard, who will head the litigation practice, said Duane Morris has "no cap on growth" for the practice group in Baltimore.

"The firm on the whole has been extremely supportive of the Baltimore office," he said. "Anything we've asked for, we've gotten."

The final litigator count "depends on finding the right people, because the work environment here is very important to us," Shepard said. "That could be 10, it could be 20 in the litigation department."

Shepard said Duane Morris is in the process of bringing attorneys in other practice areas to the office as well, though he declined to be more specific.

Shepard and Hopkins said they moved not because they were unhappy at Ober, but because the chance to work at a bigger firm was attractive. Duane Morris has more than 650 attorneys in 24 offices, while Ober has fewer than 150 and focuses on the Baltimore- Washington region.

"I felt like it was an opportunity to take a leadership role in a law firm with a much larger platform than Ober Kaler had," Shepard said.

Vickie J. Gray, an Ober spokeswoman, said the firm's chairman, John A. Wolf, was in arbitration last week and unavailable to talk, but she said he wishes the two lawyers "luck and the best success."

Shepard practices in the areas of white-collar criminal defense and health care litigation. Hopkins focuses on maritime litigation and product liability defense.

Duane Morris opened its Baltimore office in late 2006 with four corporate partners it hired from DLA Piper US LLP. In addition to Shepard and Hopkins, the firm has also hired another partner and three associates. There are now 10 lawyers in the office.

By Caryn Tamber

Identity theft conviction overturned by CSA

The Court of Special Appeals has overturned the conviction of an undocumented worker, unanimously ruling that obtaining a job using someone else's name is not a benefit and therefore not a violation of the state's identity theft law.

Dickson M. Mkama, 29, used Ernest Avith's name and Social Security number with Avith's permission to get a job at a Bethesda restaurant. Mkama reverted to using his own name at Avith's request three years later; the identity fraud charges were brought after Mkama was arrested by the U.S. Secret Service. He was convicted of identity theft in Montgomery County Circuit Court in January 2007.

While the appellate court agreed Mkama committed de facto fraud, the combination of Avith's consent and the lack of evidence indicating employment could be considered a benefit meant Mkama did not violate the identity theft statue.

The unreported opinion is available as RecordFax# 8-0520-10 (8 pages).

By Danny Jacobs

Intermediate court finds speedy trial right violated

A Baltimore man's conviction for second-degree assault was overturned by a unanimous Maryland Court of Special Appeals after finding that police took too long to execute his arrest warrant.

Edwin Sharif Bacon, 42, was charged March 9, 2000 in connection with a threat he allegedly made to a longtime neighbor of his grandmother. Police did not arrest Bacon on the charges until July 2006, however, when he was detained on unrelated charges.

At the January 2007 trial, Bacon's lawyer unsuccessfully moved to dismiss the case because of the time lapse, which prosecutors explained was due to police not being able to locate Bacon at his grandmother's house because of an incorrect address.

The appellate court found the state's reasoning was not sufficient to justify the delay and therefore violated Bacon's right to a speedy trial.

The unreported opinion is available as RecordFax #8-0520-06 (13 pages).

By Danny Jacobs

Exculpatory clause does not bar suit, CSA holds

A Montgomery County woman who fell outside her home can sue her condominium association because of an ambiguous exculpatory clause in the association's bylaws, the Maryland Court of Special Appeals unanimously ruled.

Martha L. Chase broke her collarbone when she slipped outside the Kenwood Forest Condominium in Chevy Chase in February 2004 following several days of heavy snow. Kenwood had the complex treated for ice three times during the snowfall. Chase filed a lawsuit in April 2006, but Kenwood was granted summary judgment in circuit court after arguing Chase gave up her right to sue for that type of injury under the condominium's bylaws.

But the intermediate court disagreed, finding Kenwood's exculpatory clause "covered the conduct that directly caused the injury but did not explicitly cover [the association's] own negligence."

The unreported opinion is available as RecordFax #8-0521-02 (14 pages).

By Danny Jacobs

Nomination for Miller prompts resignation vow

ANNAPOLIS (AP) -- At least one member of a judicial nominating commission is vowing to resign after the state senate president's son was nominated for a district court judgeship. According to information from The Baltimore Sun, Thomas V. Miller III, 41, who has served on the Maryland Parole Commission for 12 years, was passed over when he first applied for one of three vacant positions in February. But last month the governor issued an executive order requiring at least three nominations per vacancy and the Anne Arundel Judicial Nominating Commission voted Wednesday to recommend Miller and four other previously rejected candidates for a spot on the bench. The governor's order came after several commissions failed to recommend enough nominees for each judicial vacancy, according to a spokesman for the governor.