Lawyer

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- It was a couple of days before Christmas, and the fact that it was the season of good will was not lost on defense attorney Fred Haddad.Mr. Haddad was wrapping up a drug-trafficking trial, telling the jurors that they should acquit his client and send him home for the holidays.The defendant's family sat in the courtroom's front row, weeping.Outside the courthouse, a Salvation Army trio sang "White VTC Christmas" and "Silent Night" -- after Mr. Haddad slipped them $100 to do so."

As his second trial for the murder of 16-year-old Phylicia Barnes approaches, Michael Maurice Johnson took the witness stand Tuesday and testified that his former attorney told him he had to talk to police — bad advice his new lawyers say helped get him convicted. "He didn't give me an option," said Johnson, 30, his voice scratchy over the courtroom speakers. A Baltimore jury found Johnson guilty of second degree murder last year, but the verdict was overturned after a judge ruled that prosecutors withheld information about a key witness in the case.

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's private eye is no trench-coat-toting gumshoe with his feet propped on a cluttered desk and a whiskey bottle in his bottom drawer.No, Terry F. Lenzner, the aggressive lawyer-turned-sleuth who was hauled before a grand jury this week by the Whitewater independent counsel, heads one of the nation's top investigative outfits. It's a firm that has held up its magnifying glass for Fortune 500 companies, Mike Tyson, political candidates of all -- stripes, and now, the embattled Clinton White House.

Peter Ginsberg, the attorney for ex-Ravens running back Ray Rice, praised former U.S. District Court Judge Barbara S. Jones, the hearing officer for Rice's appeal of an indefinite NFL suspension. Jones was appointed Thursday by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in consultation with NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith to hear the appeal of Rice. Rice's two-game suspension was increased to an indefinite ban on Sept. 8 after a video surfaced of him punching his then-fiancee in a casino elevator.

M. Cristina Gutierrez, one of the Baltimore area's most ferocious criminal defense lawyers, has agreed to her own disbarment, marking the end of an accomplished law career. The state Court of Appeals ordered her "disbarred by consent" May 24, after Gutierrez agreed to resign rather than fight complaints filed against her with the state Attorney Grievance Commission, which investigates allegations of wrongdoing by lawyers. Reached by telephone yesterday at her home in Towson, Gutierrez, 50, said she suffers from multiple sclerosis.

Maria Cristina Gutierrez, a criminal defense lawyer known in Maryland's legal community for her passionate and pugnacious style, died of a heart attack yesterday at St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. The 52-year-old woman's ailment was exacerbated by multiple sclerosis. Throughout the 1990s, Ms. Gutierrez argued cases with a tenacity that earned the respect of her peers. Upon graduating from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1980, she began her career as an assistant public defender in Baltimore.

The widow of Baltimore author Tom Clancy is battling her late husband's lawyer over $6 million in taxes she says she shouldn't owe on her share of Clancy's $82 million estate, which includes a World War II tank, a $65 million stake in the Orioles and a mansion on the Chesapeake Bay. Alexandra Clancy is seeking to oust Baltimore lawyer J.W. Thompson "Topper" Webb as executor of Tom Clancy's will, accusing Webb of a mistake that adds unnecessarily to...

Clearly, neither defense attorney Joe Amendola, who has represented Jerry Sandusky in the Penn State sexual abuse trial, nor anyone close to him has ever been a victim of sexual child abuse ("Sandusky's wife: Accuser conniving," June 20). Whether or not the charges against Mr. Sandusky prove to be true, this case needs to be handled with the utmost professionalism. Mr. Amendola's remarks including "stay tuned," and "it's like a soap [opera]," etc., show a complete lack of understanding of the seriousness of cases like this one. It is one thing to believe in your client.

Marvin C. "Mike" Wahl, a retired labor lawyer and labor arbitrator, died Oct. 29 at Sinai Hospital of complications from a stroke. He was 97. The son of Austria-Hungary immigrants, Mr. Wahl was born and raised in Jersey City, N.J., where he graduated in 1932 from Lincoln High School. After earning a bachelor's degree in 1936 from Syracuse University, he entered Cornell University Law School, where he earned his law degree in 1938. Mr. Wahl, who was known as "Mike," began his legal career at Nordlinger, Reigelman and Cooper in New York City, where he met and fell in love with another lawyer, Blanche Genauer.

On Jan. 14, 1998, Hillary Rodham Clinton sat down for an interview in the White House's ornate Treaty Room with Rod J. Rosenstein and his boss, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr. Starr didn't say much. He largely left the questioning of the first lady about missing FBI files to the 33-year-old Rosenstein, who is likely to be the next U.S. attorney in Maryland. The moment illustrates how quickly Rosenstein was able to pull up a seat at the table of one of the highest-profile corruption investigations in decades, a remarkable feat for a junior lawyer now on track to become Maryland's top federal prosecutor.

Dealing with police can involve a delicate balance between knowing your rights and being respectful to officers. Both are crucial, seven lawyers told a church full of Baltimore's black youths and their parents. But when in doubt, attorney Douglas B. Evans said, "you have the right to shut up. " The panel of black attorneys answered questions about police brutality and racial profiling, amid other concerns during the seminar, Conscious Operations during Police Stops, or "C.O.P.S.," at the Empowerment Temple Church on Tuesday night.

The widow of Baltimore author Tom Clancy is battling her late husband's lawyer over $6 million in taxes she says she shouldn't owe on her share of Clancy's $82 million estate, which includes a World War II tank, a $65 million stake in the Orioles and a mansion on the Chesapeake Bay. Alexandra Clancy is seeking to oust Baltimore lawyer J.W. Thompson "Topper" Webb as executor of Tom Clancy's will, accusing Webb of a mistake that adds unnecessarily to...

Attorneys for a Baltimore police officer accused of slitting the throat of a shar-pei in June took the rare step Wednesday of writing an outside-the-court letter directly to Baltimore State's Attorney Gregg L. Bernstein, asking him to drop the case. The attorneys for Officer Jeffrey Bolger argue the case was filed prematurely amid a storm of public criticism and a pre-investigatory rush to react by police and prosecutors, and that information uncovered since clears Bolger of wrongdoing.

A law professor who is teaching Maryland's public defenders to better serve their poor clients amid "crushing" caseloads is among the winners of this year's MacArthur Foundation "genius" grants. As founder of the Atlanta-based organization Gideon's Promise, Jonathan Rapping works to train public defenders and help reform what he considers civil rights abuses in the criminal justice system. He arrived in Baltimore in May for a year-long stint at the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, his first attempt at changing a statewide system.

Lawyers for a Baltimore police officer said he was legally authorized to kill a shar-pei in June and was acting to protect the unborn child of a woman the dog had bitten — an argument the bite victim said she was shocked to hear. Jeffrey Bolger, a 22-year veteran, is charged with slitting the throat of the dog, named Nala. Bolger is alleged to have killed the dog even though it already had been brought under control with a dog pole. Bolger appeared in court Thursday, and his attorney entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf to two counts of animal mutilation, one of animal cruelty and one of misconduct in office.

Defense attorney Russell A. Neverdon Sr. filed Wednesday to run as a write-in candidate for Baltimore state's attorney after a city judge issued a ruling that kept his name off the ballot. The only name that will be presented to voters in the Nov. 4 election is that of Democratic nominee Marilyn Mosby, an insurance company attorney and former prosecutor. In a video posted to his Facebook page, Neverdon urged his supporters to continue backing his candidacy. "My name will not appear on the ballot, but I am a candidate for the office," he said.

Fed up with rodents and flooding, about half of the members of Baltimore's law department are leaving their ground-level offices at City Hall for a renovated facility in downtown Baltimore. The $306,000 cost of the renovations was approved Wednesday by the city's Board of Estimates. About 50 law department employees will move from City Hall to two floors on city-owned property at 7 E. Redwood St. "It became an environmental challenge," said City Solicitor George Nilson of the ground-level offices.

Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake has appointed a three-member panel to distribute up to $3 million to the owners of historic properties whose tax bills in coming years will be higher than what government officials told them to expect. Retired Baltimore City Circuit Judge  John M.  Glynn, City Auditor Robert McCarty, and City Solicitor George Nilson will decide which owners will get the checks, which will cover portions of up to nine years of future tax bills. About 75 property owners submitted applications that could make them eligible to receive the checks, city officials said.