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Michael J. Baxter
Michael J. Baxter, a founding partner in the Baltimore law firm of Baxter, Baker, Sidle, Conn & Jones, P.A., has been named President-Elect nominee of the Maryland State Bar Association (MSBA). Baxter will run for election this June at the MSBA Annual Meeting, leading a slate that includes Treasurer Debra G. Schubert, a Baltimore County solo practitioner, and the Honorable Pamila J. Brown, District Court of Maryland, Howard County, for Secretary. John Patrick Kudel, a small firm practitioner with Kudel, McGann and Del Pino, LLC, in Rockville and of counsel to the Rockville-based firm of Karp, Frosh, Lapidus, Wigodsky & Norwind, P.A., will be installed as President at the 2012 MSBA Annual Meeting. Baxter is slated to succeed Kudel as President for the 2013-2014 bar year.
“The Maryland State Bar Association is an incredibly well-functioning, well-run, and appreciated organization,” says Baxter, currently serving his second year as MSBA Secretary. He considers “the opportunity to meet people – not just lawyers, but people that you would otherwise never meet if you just showed up and did your nine-to-five job and went home at the end of the day” chief among the benefits of bar membership. “You can have a very fulfilling practice [without that], but I don’t think it’s all it can be.”
“It broadens your horizons,” continues the President-Elect nominee. “It also makes you think about issues a little differently. It’s not just the small world of what’s on your desk that day; things you do that day have ramifications on bigger issues. Whether you call it access to justice, an independent judiciary, or protecting the practicing lawyer’s interests against bad ideas that every now and then come rolling down the pike – any of those things…it makes you think about them.”
Baxter, a trial attorney who primarily represents doctors and hospitals in medical malpractice cases, stresses the importance of leadership that reflects the diverse types of law practices among MSBA’s members. “I think it’s important that all different kinds of lawyers [serve as] president of the state bar,” he states. “You can’t have the same kind of lawyer every year, or different factions feel that they’re not represented.”
“There are a lot of different opinions on every topic,” he adds. “I think the president’s job is to hear all the different voices [within the bar] – make sure everybody feels like they’re engaged, that they have an opportunity to be heard. I’d like to hear, when I’m done being President, that the Association stayed true to its values and mission – that all different constituencies felt like they were engaged and given a fair chance to weigh in on issues.”
Background
In his youth, Baxter decided to pursue a career in the law based on his observations of lawyers that he knew. “They seemed to play a role in all the important issues you’d read about,” he explains. “They weren’t necessarily politicians, but they seemed to have an important function in a lot of things that were going on in the world…at least local and regional, if not national, events.”
After graduating cum laude from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a B.A. in Economics in 1977, Baxter obtained his J.D. from George Washington University in 1980 and was admitted to the Maryland bar that same year. (Baxter was also admitted to the D.C. bar in 1995.)
He briefly served as law clerk to the Honorable Eugene Mackall Childs, then-Chief Judge of the Fifth Judicial Circuit Court, in Annapolis before joining the Baltimore firm of Smith, Somerville & Case, L.L.C., as an associate in 1981. Becoming a partner in 1989, Baxter worked at the firm until its dissolution in 1997, whereupon he helped launch his current firm the following year.
“The importance of active bar engagement was engrained in the culture at Smith, Somerville & Case,” notes Baxter, who, prior to holding his current post of Secretary, also served on the MSBA Board of Governors (2001-2003). But it was during the six years (2003-2009) that he chaired the Association’s Standing Committee on Laws that Baxter “really learned a lot about how the Bar works.”
“I learned a lot about how the Bar interacts with the legislature,” he explains, “and I came to believe that the legislative process, or the role that the Bar has in it, is one of the most important roles it serves. People do listen when we go [to Annapolis] and weigh in on issues.”
Baxter’s current professional affiliations also include serving as a Trustee of the Maryland Bar Foundation (since 2006); a Member of the American Board of Trial Advocates (since 2004); a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers (since 2003); and a Trustee of the Baltimore Bar Foundation (since 1998). Previously, Baxter also served as President of the Baltimore Bar Foundation (1998-1999); President of the Bar Association of Baltimore City (2000-2001); and State Committee Chair for the American College of Trial Lawyers (2008-2010). In addition to MSBA, Baxter is also a Member of the Bar Association of Baltimore City; the Baltimore County Bar Association; the Bar Association of the District of Columbia; the American Health Lawyers Association; and the American Bar Association.
Above all, Baxter intends to “make sure the Association keeps doing the good things it does” during his presidency – “maybe roll out a new idea or two, but make sure it sticks to its core functions and values.”
“I know I’m going to get a lot out of it,” says the President-Elect nominee. “I’ve watched the other presidents I know go through it, [and] I think it’s made them better lawyers.”
