BALTIMORE, MD (11/24/03) – Roger W. Titus, Partner-in-Charge of Venable’s Montgomery County Office, has resigned from the firm in order to take his oath of office as United States District Judge for Maryland. Mr. Titus will be publicly sworn in to office on November 26, 2003.
Mr. Titus, whose extensive experience includes complex commercial and constitutional litigation, as well as state and local government cases, fills a vacancy created by U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis’ decision to retire to senior status in Baltimore. Mr. Titus will join the three sitting judges who are based in U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, MD.
“Roger is one of the finest attorneys I know,” said Venable Managing Partner James L. Shea, “and while I am sad to see him leave Venable, I am very proud of him and all that he has accomplished. His knowledge of the law, his background as a trial lawyer, and his commitment to the Bar will serve him extremely well in his new position.”
U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD), who with Maryland’s other U.S. Senator, Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), testified at a hearing in favor of Mr. Titus’ nomination in September, joined in praising the former Venable partner, noting, “He brings the qualities we look for in a district judge. Mr. Titus is a man of wide experience, breadth, and depth, [who] has the best principles in the legal profession.”
Mr. Titus’ experience in trial and appellate litigation includes a landmark 1997 case in which he successfully defended the Board of Education of Montgomery County, MD against a lawsuit in which the American Civil Liberties Union challenged the closing of public schools from the Friday preceding through the Monday following Easter.
Mr. Titus recently succeeded in obtaining a summary judgment in the first case in Montgomery County heard through Maryland’s new Business and Technology Case Management Program. That program establishes a track for cases involving complex business and technology issues to be heard before judges who receive special training in order to better understand the dynamics and intricacies of business- and technology-related issues.
A former City Attorney for Rockville, Mr. Titus ran his own highly successful firm (Titus & Glasgow) until 1988, when he merged his practice with Venable, becoming the firm’s Montgomery County office.
He is a member of the Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Court of Appeals of Maryland, and a former President of the Maryland State Bar Association. He was also elected to fellowship in the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
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