Maryland AG paid $1.3M to law firms that donated to Brown

(The Center Square) - The office of Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown paid nearly $1.3 million to two law firms that donated to his political campaign, according to an investigation by The Center Square. 

Philadelphia-based Ballard Spahr LLP was paid $985,000 under contracts covering from January 2023 through this year. Saul Ewing LLP, based in Washington, D.C., received $302,000 during the same period.  

The Center Square obtained the figures from a request to Maryland’s Office of Attorney General for billing records by outside counsel from January 2023 through May 20 of this year. Both law firms had contracts with the OAG before Brown, a Democrat, took office on Jan. 3, 2023. An OAG spokeswoman said on Friday that neither firm was chosen by the Brown administration. 

A matter of timing

But nearly all of the $1.3 million was paid after Brown took office. Both firms also donated to Friends of Anthony Brown, Brown’s campaign committee, after he took office, according to state campaign finance records. 

On Nov. 2, 2022, six days before the election, Ballard Spahr donated $2,500. On Jan. 8, 2025, the firm contributed another $2,500. 

In the run-up to the Democratic primary on July 19, 2022, Saul Ewing donated $6,000. In November 2023, the firm also contributed $6,000, according to state campaign finance records. 

In addition, Saul Ewing gave $6,000 to Katie Curran O’Malley, Brown’s opponent in the 2022 Democratic primary. Under state law, $6,000 is the maximum amount permitted per four-year election cycle. 

Competitive or politicized

Jennifer Donelan, a spokeswoman for the office of Maryland’s Attorney General, said Brown’s administration “had no role in selecting either firm. Both firms were selected through a competitive process conducted by the prior administration,” she told The Center Square in an interview.

Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said the arrangement raises concerns about the politicization of state attorneys general offices.  

“This is a serious problem; they’re not the only ones,” Painter told The Center Square, referring to Ballard Spahr and Saul Ewing. He said law firms should not donate to the campaigns of attorneys general when the firms have business before the attorney general's office.

“The public,” he said, “shouldn’t have to guess what’s going on.” 

Phone calls and emails to Ballard Spahr and Saul Ewing were not immediately returned. 

The two firms are among at least five law firms that The Center Square identified as having donated to Brown’s campaign while receiving contracts from the attorney general’s office.

The Center Square reported that under Brown, the office of Maryland’s Attorney General has entered into contracts with at least 81 outside law firms, legal nonprofits, and attorneys. Five of those firms donated $30,250 to Brown’s political campaign committee or through a political action committee.  In addition to Ballard Spahr and Saul Ewing, the others were Venable LLP, Cohen Millstein Sellers & Toll, and Whiteford, Taylor, & Preston LLP. 

$675 an hour

The Center Square reported that Ballard Spahr attorneys received as much as $575 an hour. According to the latest records, Charles O. Monk II, who is of counsel at Saul Ewing, received $675 an hour for 11.5 hours in January 2023.

During the same period, Saul Ewing attorneys Jordan D. Rosenfeld and Mark Anthony Simanowith, both of whom are partners at the firm, were paid $509 an hour, while two associate attorneys, Ashley N. Fellona, and Daniel M. Moore, received $283 an hour. 

Ballard Spahr’s attorneys averaged $515 to $545 an hour, representing the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development on at least 15 contracts.  

The firm’s contracts included  Great Mills Court in Lexington, Maryland, an affordable housing redevelopment and sustainable community initiative, and Park Heights Place, an affordable senior housing community in Baltimore, both in 2024. 

Saul Ewing represented the Maryland State Board of Education in the Bradford litigation, a case that predates Brown's administration and has stopped and started since 1994. The ACLU of Maryland and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, in addition to parents of Baltimore City public school children, alleged that the state had chronically underfunded the city’s public schools. In 2024, the Appellate Court of Maryland ruled for the state.