On the Move - Legal edition

Posted: 7:00 pm Sun, November 22, 2009
By Daily Record Staff

Joy M. Napier-Joyce has joined Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, of Baltimore, as counsel in its employee benefits practice group. She received her law degree from the Boston University School of Law and her bachelor’s degree from Franklin & Marshall College.
The Baltimore County Bar Association honored Frank Tunney, of Baltimore, on Oct. 29 as its Pro Bono Attorney of 2009 and Baumohl | Hamburg, LLC, of Baltimore, as Pro Bono Law Firm of the Year. A. Jai Bonner, of Baltimore, received the Special Recognition Award for her service on the Local Pro Bono Committee and contributions to pro bono work.

Mark Jensen, a senior partner of Bowie & Jensen, of Towson, has been approved to serve on the MedStar Health Investment Committee.  The committee oversees the financial assets of MedStar Health, a nonprofit, regional health care system with a community-based network of nine hospitals and other health care services in Maryland and the Washington, D.C., region. Jensen also serves as chairman of the board of Union Memorial Hospital, a MedStar hospital in Baltimore. Bowie & Jensen serves as general counsel to privately held businesses and their owners.

Ten lawyers from Whiteford, Taylor & Preston‘s Baltimore office have been selected by Euromoney’s Legal Media Group as “leading litigation attorneys.” Their names appeared in the 2010 edition of the guide Benchmark Litigation: The Definitive Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms & Attorneys. They are: Edward Buxbaum, commercial and insurance coverage litigation; Kevin Hroblak, bankruptcy and professional liability; Harry Johnson, product liability and appellate; Richard Magid, business litigation and appellate; Albert Mezzanotte Jr.,  professional liability and appellate; Paul Nussbaum, bankruptcy; William Ryan, business litigation; Steven Tiller, intellectual property litigation; and “Future Stars” Alexander Koff, international, and Brent Strickland, bankruptcy. In addition, the firm was one of the eight most highly rated in Maryland, receiving the ranking of “highly recommended.”

Five principals of Paley Rothman, of Bethesda, have been chosen for inclusion in the 2010 edition of The Best Lawyers in America. They are: Glenn M. Cooper, manager and senior member of the firm’s litigation and appellate practice groups; Kathleen M. Dumais, of the litigation and family law practice groups, is a member of the Maryland House of Delegates;  Hope B. Eastman, chair of the firm’s employment law practice group; Linda D. Schwartz, head of the professional ethics & discipline practice group; and Steven A. Widdes, co chair of the estate planning and estate/trust administration practice groups.

Michael W. Davis, a principal of Davis, Agnor, Rapaport & Skalny, of Columbia, has received the James W. Rouse Award from the Columbia Foundation.  The award recognizes an individual’s commitment to The Columbia Foundation and the community. Davis served on the foundation’s board for 13 years as vice chair and later chairman. He also has served as a leader of the Howard County Commission on Aging, the Elder Law Council of the Maryland State Bar Association and the Howard Community College Educational Foundation. He was a founding member of the Maryland/D.C. Chapter of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys.

Oscar Gray, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law, will receive the 2009 William Lloyd Prosser Award in January in recognition of outstanding lifetime contributions to torts from the American Association of Law Schools Torts and Compensation Systems Section. The award is the highest honor that AALS presents for outstanding contributions to scholarship, teaching, and service in torts and compensation systems. Gray is recognized for his work as editor of the six-volume tort treatise, Harper, James and Gray on the Law of Torts.

Kevin L. Shepherd, co-chair of the real estate practice group of Venable, working in the firm’s Baltimore office, has been elected president of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers. He is former editor-in-chief of Probate & Property, an ABA publication. He has served on a number of real estate task forces, including the ABA Task Force on Gatekeeper Regulation and the Profession and the ABA Standing Committee on Publishing Oversight.

Harriet E. Cooperman and Gary B. Eidelman, partners in the Baltimore office of Saul Ewing, have been elected fellows of The College of Labor and Employment Lawyers. Cooperman is co-chair of the office’s Labor, Employment and Employee Benefits Practice Group. She has been vice chair of the State Higher Education Labor Relations Board since 2001. Eidelman is vice chair of the Business Department and vice office managing partner of Saul Ewing’s Baltimore office. He is a contributing author to the American Bar Association’s Section of Labor and Employment Law, Employment Rights and Responsibilities Committee, where he is the management co-chair of the Employment at Will and Collateral Torts subcommittee, and a member of the board of the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore Inc.