Two Lawyers

In his last weeks in office, former Gov. William Donald Schaefer appointed six members to the Judicial Disabilities Commission, filling vacancies and replacing those whose terms expired in December.Baltimore County Circuit Judge Barbara Kerr Howe is the lone holdover and will head the commission.Maryland's Constitution requires that the commission have four judges, two lawyers and one lay member.The only nonlawyer on the commission is Sandra Trice Gray, vice president of the Independent Sector in Washington, D.C., a coalition of 800 corporations, foundations and volunteer organizations that encourages giving and volunteering.

Gertrude K. Dorsey, who was among the first women in the state to become a certified public accountant, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at the Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. She was 93 and a Towson resident. Born Gertrude Hubert Kitchen in Atlanta, she was the granddaughter of the Cherokee County sheriff. Her father moved his family to Halethorpe when she was 6 months old. She was a 1935 graduate of Catonsville High School, where she earned varsity letters in field ball, basketball and volleyball and played on the state championship volleyball team.

The state's highest court is punishing two lawyers who handled injury cases referred by a con artist serving 27 months in a federal prison.The Court of Appeals decided yesterday to suspend Versteal Kemp of Baltimore for three years and to bar T. Clarence Harper of Washington from getting a law license in Maryland.Kemp and Harper opened a Baltimore law office to take over the clients of Burton M. Greenstein, who was disbarred in 1995. Deborah S. Kolodner, convicted of running an insurance swindle at a physical therapy clinic that federal prosecutors called a "fraud factory," sent clients first to her husband, who was disbarred in 1991 and has since died, and then to Greenstein.

As tabloid reports of a sex scandal threatened former Sen. John Edwards' presidential campaign last December on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, two lawyers surfaced with written statements that appeared to exonerate him. One, Robert J. Gordon of New York, said his client, Rielle Hunter, a pregnant 43-year-old filmmaker, was not carrying Edwards' child. Shortly thereafter, the other lawyer, Pamela J. Marple of Washington, sent word that her client, Andrew Young, an Edwards campaign aide, was the baby's father.

John H. Morris Jr. always wanted to handle a death penalty case. Jose Anderson wasn't so sure. The two lawyers joined forces seven years ago to put together a case that persuaded Gov. Parris N. Glendening to commute convicted murderer Eugene Colvin-el's death sentence to life without parole Wednesday. Glendening's decision, the first commutation in Maryland since 1987, was the culmination of 16 years of work for Morris and seven for Anderson. Both lawyers said they were ecstatic when the decision was announced.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. -- They seem an unlikely pair -- the courtly Richmond lawyer who can stretch his vowels into next week and the Bronx native who bottles up New York intensity in a voice often so flat and low that the judge reminds him to speak up. These two, who met in January when a Virginia judge teamed them, are the lead defense lawyers for Lee Boyd Malvo, who is suspected of acting as the teen-age half of another seemingly unlikely duo -- the sniper...

One of the city's biggest law firms said yesterday that it is cutting almost 10 percent of its attorneys, including seven associates who have been laid off and seven partners who have agreed to leave the firm.Frank, Bernstein, Conaway & Goldman will also close its Towson office, said Shale D. Stiller, the firm's managing partner. He blamed the cuts on the soft economy, which he said has reduced the firm's business.The 112-year-old law firm will have about 130 lawyers working in Baltimore, Washington, Bethesda, Columbia and Frederick, Mr. Stiller said.

Flamboyant criminal defense lawyers William H. "Billy" Murphy Jr. and M. Cristina Gutierrez have parted ways after years of sharing controversy and high-profile clients.The long-rumored professional split became official yesterday, when receptionists began answering the phone "Murphy and Associates" at the partners' Calvert Street office, and Ms. Gutierrez completed the task of moving into the downtown firm of Redmond, Burgin & Cruz, where she will have a limited affiliation.Ms. Gutierrez, a divorced mother of two, called the breakup "amicable" and said that she was hoping to better control her workload and spend more time with her family.

An offer from the two lawyers in Baltimore County's People's Counsel office to surrender a combined $13,000 in salary next year has prompted County Executive Roger B. Hayden to relent and leave intact the position of deputy people's counsel.The decision appears to defuse what had become a hot controversy among community groups over one of Mr. Hayden's smallest budget cuts, first proposed last spring. Because of the furor, he delayed the cut until Dec. 31 and then again until March 31.Mr. Hayden has also backed away from earlier statements about forming an oversight committee to evaluate the office's performance, although he said yesterday he plans to continue discussing that with the County Council.

As tabloid reports of a sex scandal threatened former Sen. John Edwards' presidential campaign last December on the eve of the Iowa caucuses, two lawyers surfaced with written statements that appeared to exonerate him. One, Robert J. Gordon of New York, said his client, Rielle Hunter, a pregnant 43-year-old filmmaker, was not carrying Edwards' child. Shortly thereafter, the other lawyer, Pamela J. Marple of Washington, sent word that her client, Andrew Young, an Edwards campaign aide, was the baby's father.

Two Baltimore lawyers have been indicted on drug charges as part of a Baltimore County wiretap investigation that involves more than 40 defendants, including some who have been charged with being drug kingpins. Christie Pierce Needleman, 37, and Jonas Todd Needleman, 36, a married couple who live in Pikesville and work in Baltimore, each face misdemeanor charges of conspiracy to distribute OxyContin, conspiracy to possess OxyContin with the intention of distributing it, conspiracy to possess OxyContin, and marijuana possession.

Mary M. Kramer came to family law by way of a boss with old-school views. In the 1980s, a male lawyer hired her and said, "You're a woman, you'll do the divorce cases." William V. Tucker first worked with kids and the criminal justice system as a police officer in New Jersey, when he was part of a program similar to DARE. Kramer and Tucker will bring their diverse experiences to their latest jobs as Howard County Circuit Court's newest masters in chancery, filling vacancies left by two masters who retired from their seats this fall.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. -- They seem an unlikely pair -- the courtly Richmond lawyer who can stretch his vowels into next week and the Bronx native who bottles up New York intensity in a voice often so flat and low that the judge reminds him to speak up. These two, who met in January when a Virginia judge teamed them, are the lead defense lawyers for Lee Boyd Malvo, who is suspected of acting as the teen-age half of another seemingly unlikely duo -- the sniper...

Attorneys Robert Jacobson and Bernard Kraft own their business: the law practice, the files, the furniture - and for the last year, the walls that surround them. Put off by rising rents, the partners made a decision to buy their office space. With just three employees - including the two lawyers - they weren't in the market for a building. Instead, they bought Suite 401 in 606 Baltimore Ave. in Towson. "It was a no-brainer," said Jacobson, who has worked with Kraft for 25 years. "We had always rented, so when we knew we had to move we looked at both renting and buying.

MANASSAS, Va. - A Prince William County Circuit Court judge appointed a second attorney yesterday to defend sniper suspect John Allen Muhammad, giving him two seasoned lawyers with experience in high-profile cases. During a 10-minute hearing, Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. delayed setting a trial date and named Alexandria-based lawyer Jonathan Shapiro co-counsel with Peter Greenspun of Fairfax, who represented Muhammad yesterday in court. Shapiro and Greenspun are also paired in a Fairfax County triple homicide case set to go to trial next month.

Two Baltimore bounty hunters were indicted yesterday on charges related to the alleged invasion of an Ellicott City home in December. The Howard County grand jury indicted Darnell Anthony Brown, 29, and Everett Ambush Chambers, 26, on charges of armed robbery, robbery, theft, second-degree assault and impersonating a police officer. Deputy State's Attorney I. Matthew Campbell said the case against the bounty hunters is unusual. Bond industry experts have said that prosecutors sometimes hesitate to bring charges against bail bondsmen and their employees because they are thought to be widely exempt from the law. Chambers and Brown, both employees of Baltimore-based Prestige Bail Bonds, said they were recovering bail jumpers at an apartment on Town & Country Boulevard on Dec. 19. While at the apartment, the two ate food, watched television and stayed until 2:40 a.m. without permission before leaving with one of the female residents, whom they later dropped off outside a police station in Catonsville, according to charging documents.

Scotland E. Williams told a fellow inmate at the Anne Arundel County jail that he fatally shot two lawyers in their weekend home near Annapolis last May to get his hands on the Acura Legend owned by one of the victims, the inmate said.Carl Spoon testified in Anne Arundel Circuit Court yesterday that Mr. Williams told him "the only thing he had done it for was the red Acura Legend" during a conversation one morning last June at the jail, where they were both awaiting trial.Mr. Williams, 31, of Arnold is charged with first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of Julie Noel Gilbert, 48, and her husband, Jose E. Trias, 49, who were found slain in their home in Winchester on the Severn on May 16.Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in the case, which is being heard by Judge Eugene M. Lerner.

ON FEB. 28, I went to court in my chronic battle to get the state to stop threatening me with jail for the crime of not earning as much money as my ex-wife thinks I should.On the advice of "my" attorney, a young lady from the Public Defender's Office, I pleaded guilty to failure to pay child support as ordered and paid $1,520 to my ex-wife (money borrowed from a friend) to stay out of jail. I must come up with another $1,000 by the end of April -- and pay $130 per week in child support for the next three years even if I become ill or can't work for other reasons, or my probation will be revoked and I will go to jail for three years.

Michael Davis was tired of seeing clients walk out of the door of his law firm, and Fred Coover wanted to develop a larger business. So the two lawyers -- longtime associates who often made referrals for each other -- joined forces, creating Davis, Coover, Agnor & Barr. Although still a small firm with eight lawyers, the group has become the second-largest home-grown law firm in Howard County, an area dominated by solo practitioners. "In Central Maryland, I don't know of any other county that has so few firms of [more]