Baltimore Lawyer

In the center of Mobtown Fight Club, a small gym tucked away in an alley off Baltimore Street, Venroy July pounds a speed bag. Behind him, his trainer Adrian Davis shouts phrases of encouragement. "Yeah! Work it champ!" Eyes fixed on the flittering bag, July appears oblivious to the world around him. "Can't nobody beat you. Nobody!" July rapidly rotates his arms, his body transforming into a smooth, punching machine. "The next cruiserweight champion of the world!"

This month, disapproval of Congress hit an all-time high — The New York Times reports that 82 percent of Americans give Congress the thumbs-down. Both parties get low marks, so the general disgust can't be attributed only to ideology. What the poll should call attention to is something more fundamental, a basic competency we expect our leaders to possess when they go to Washington: the ability to negotiate. Many members of Congress used to work in the private sector, where business people negotiate successfully every day. Yet this summer, congressional leaders showed themselves to be clumsy deal-makers, leading the country closer to the brink of economic crisis with every contentious meeting and press conference they conducted.

Baltimore attorney Aaron Greenfield's work representing Holocaust survivors and their families earned him an invitation last month to join a special committee of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Greenfield, special counsel in the corporate practice group of Duane Morris LLP, was selected after he worked on state legislation requiring firms bidding on commuter rail contracts to disclose whether they had transported Holocaust victims to death camps during World War II. The measure was passed this year by the Maryland General Assembly and signed into law last month.

Melvin R. Kenney Jr., a retired food broker who served one term in the Maryland House of Delegates during the 1950s, died June 4 of multiple organ failure at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. The Cockeysville resident was 93. The son of a stevedore and a homemaker, Mr. Kenney was raised on 27th Street in Baltimore. After graduating from City College in 1935, he went to work as an office clerk for the old C.D. Kenny Co., a wholesale coffee and tea company. "He was promoted to salesman after a man had a heart attack and didn't return to work, because my father had a car," said his son, Melvin R. Kenney Jr. of Cockeysville.

It was late one afternoon when the email went out, warning of "hot front page news" that could be a "big embarrassment" to Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler. The message came from an assistant attorney general , writing to alert her supervisor that a Baltimore lawyer was angry at the state health department lab for destroying blood test records of children with lead poisoning. This private attorney wasn't just any lawyer, her email said, but "a great supporter of the AG's governor aspirations" and "a good buddy" of Gansler's, who is widely viewed as harboring higher political ambitions.

A Baltimore real estate attorney has admitted to conspiring with other local lawyers to rig the bids for millions of dollars' worth of government tax auctions in Maryland, newly unsealed court records show. Attorney John Reiff stated under oath that he and two law partners helped fix bids for the purchase of "large numbers" of property tax debts, or tax liens, sold by tax assessors at auctions in Baltimore and several Maryland counties from 2003 to 2007, according to court filings made public last month.

Baltimore Orioles owner Peter G. Angelos is bidding to buy a bankrupt horse-racing track in Prince George's County and resurrecting a push to allow slot machines there. Angelos' proposal came as Maryland's second slots casino opened Tuesday at the Ocean Downs racetrack on the Eastern Shore. Gov. Martin O'Malley, state leaders and Worcester County officials attended the grand opening of the $45 million casino, the latest expansion of Maryland gambling that took many years and rancorous debate to become a reality.

H. Robert "Sonny" Simon, a Baltimore County lawyer and businessman, died Oct. 4 of a heart attack at his Hunt Valley home. He was 83. The son of Jewish immigrants, Mr. Simon was born and raised in Patterson, N.J. After the death of his mother when he was 9, he and his brother were placed in an orphanage. Mr. Simon was a graduate of Weequahic High School, and during World War II, he enlisted in the Army and fought in the campaigns for Saipan and Peleliu. Because of his wartime experiences, Mr. Simon supported various veterans organizations during his life.

Bernard John "Jack" Medairy Jr., a retired Baltimore County lawyer and former member of the Maryland legislature who wrote a history of his family, died Friday of heart failure at his Rodgers Forge home. He was 89. Mr. Medairy, the son of a lawyer and an educator, was born in Baltimore and raised in Charles Village. He attended Polytechnic Institute for three years and graduated in 1940 from City College. In 1941, he was working as a hull draftsman for the shipbuilding and repair division of Bethlehem Steel Corp.