The Baltimore County Bar Association has many reasons to be proud, and none more so than the recent announcement of several prestigious awards being presented to three of our individual members in recognition of their outstanding accomplishments to the legal profession.
On March 15, 2008, the 2008 University of Baltimore Legacy of Excellence in Litigation ceremony and dinner was held at the Belvedere Hotel. Among this year’s recipients were BCBA members: Hon. Joseph F. Murphy, Jr. and Peter D. Ward.
Judge Joseph F. Murphy, Jr. is the 2008 recipient of the Charles Hamilton Houston Lifetime Achievement Award in Litigation. Charles Hamilton Houston served as Dean of the Howard University School of Law and was the first special counsel to the NAACP. He was the legal strategist behind Brown v. Board of Education and, along with Thurgood Marshall, participated in numerous other landmark civil rights cases. In 2004, University of Baltimore, with the blessing of the Houston Family, created an award in his honor. Past recipients include William H. Murphy, Jr., Albert D. Brault, the Honorable Lynne A. Battaglia, and George L. Russell, Jr. For Judge Murphy, this award comes on the heels of his elevation to the Court of Appeals in December 2007. As already mentioned, Judge Murphy was an Assistant State’s Attorney in Baltimore City, before entering private practice. In 1984, he was appointed to the Circuit Court for Baltimore County where he served for nine years. Thereafter, he was appointed to the Court of Special Appeals, and in 1996 became the Chief Judge. Judge Murphy has always found time in his busy schedule to assist in the education of both law students at the University of Baltimore, and more experienced attorneys through the many CLE programs offered by the Baltimore County Bar Association, the Maryland State Bar Association and MICPEL.
Peter D. Ward received the Legacy of Excellence in Litigation Award. Peter was a member of the class of 1962 of the University of Baltimore. His legal career has included being a member of the felony trial team of the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, where at one time he was joined by future judges Joseph Murphy, Thomas Bollinger, and Robert Dugan. Among the cases successfully prosecuted by Peter was that of Sam Green, then State’s Attorney for Baltimore County. Interestingly, Sandra O’Connor, soon to be State’s Attorney in Baltimore County, was also a member of the City State’s Attorney’s office when Peter was there. He went on to work at the Office of the United States Attorney’s Office in Maryland and joined Charles Bernstein when the Office of the Federal Public Defender was formed in 1974. In addition to his busy practice, Peter also teaches a litigation skills course at the University of Baltimore.
The Honorable Vicki Ballou-Watts has been named to the Daily Record’s 13th Annual Maryland’s Top 100 Women list. In fact, as a result of this being her third such recognition, Judge Ballou-Watts has been entered into the Circle of Excellence. Judge Ballou-Watts has also been active in the Maryland State Bar Association as a Faculty Instructor on the Professionalism Course for New Admittees. In the Baltimore County Bar Association she has served as Chair of the Continuing Legal Education Committee and the Professionalism Committee. Last year, she was elected to the Executive Council of the BCBA. She is member of the National Association of Women Judges and has been the Secretary of the Maryland Chapter.
It is nice to see that the accomplishments of these three individuals are being recognized for achievements that we, who practice in Baltimore County, have long known about.