Marilyn Mosby can keep law license while federal convictions are appealed, Maryland Supreme Court rules

Maryland’s highest court ruled Friday that former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s law license will not be suspended while appeals in her two federal convictions are pending.

In a two-page order published Friday, the Supreme Court of Maryland ruled against the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission’s bar counsel, who sought to immediately suspend Mosby’s law license after a jury convicted her of perjury in November . The commission amended its request after her mortgage fraud conviction in February

Bar counsel Thomas D. DeGonia did not respond immediately to a request for comment late Friday.

According to the court’s order, Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Yvette M. Byrant will hold a hearing on Mosby’s license after “the completion of appellate review.”

Mosby was sentenced in May to one year of home detention for convictions on perjury and mortgage fraud.

“Today, the [Maryland] Supreme Court stayed the immediate suspension of my law license pending an appeal of these wrongful convictions,” Mosby said in a statement. “I am grateful and continue to remain steadfast that justice will be served. I am continuously appreciative for the outpouring of community support that I have received. Prayer works.”

Her attorney Tiffany Alston called it a “blessing” that Mosby will keep her license during the appeals process.

“There a wide range of legal scholars from across the country who are supporting Ms. Mosby’s criminal appeal including attorney Ben Crump,” Alston said in a statement. “We are pleased that the court chose to stay its hand and not impose immediate discipline but instead to allow the justice system to work. The right to practice law is a privilege and today we are [grateful] that Ms. Mosby continues to have it. She does not take this matter lightly.”

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Steven B. Gould wrote that allowing Mosby to maintain an active license would undermine public perception of the justice system.

“Ms. Mosby was convicted by two juries of her peers of separate crimes that speak directly to her character,” Gould wrote. “Although I may be persuaded otherwise if this matter comes back to us on a full record, for now, based on the findings of both juries, I am constrained to conclude Ms. Mosby presents an unacceptable risk of harm to the public if permitted to practice law in Maryland.”

Justice Jonathan Biran joined the dissent.

Under Maryland’s rules for attorneys, it is considered “professional misconduct” for an attorney to “commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the attorney’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as an attorney in other respects.”

The Attorney Grievance Commission’s bar counsel is supposed to notify the Supreme Court of Maryland when they learn that a lawyer has been convicted of a crime, regardless of whether there is a pending appeal, asking for that lawyer to be immediately suspended from practicing law.

In response to an order from the court requiring Mosby to show why she should not be suspended, her attorney argued that Mosby has not been accused of harming a client and that the charges were related to conduct in her personal life, not her legal practice. Alston also wrote that Mosby, now divorced from Baltimore City Council President Nick Mosby, needs her law license to provide for her two children.

Andrew I. Alperstein, a defense attorney and former prosecutor, said the court’s order was not necessarily surprising given the circumstances of the charges. If Mosby was a practicing lawyer and her convictions had been related to dishonesty with clients, the court might have been more aggressive in suspending her license, he said.

Mosby’s criminal convictions are not final until the appellate process has been exhausted.

“The court seemingly balances the need to protect the community from alleged dishonest lawyers against her right to let the process lay its course,” Alperstein said.

Still, Alperstein said Mosby will likely face disbarment if her perjury and fraud convictions are upheld.

“The charges that she was convicted of are honesty related and that generally is a problem for lawyers to keep their licenses,” he said.

In a recent case involving a different prominent Baltimore attorney convicted in federal court, the Supreme Court of Maryland did grant the bar counsel’s request to suspend a law license.

Shortly after the 2022 sentencing of Kenneth Ravenell, a Baltimore attorney convicted of money laundering, the court ordered the suspension of his license while he pursued appeals.

In April, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Ravenell’s appeal of a jury’s 2021 verdict finding him guilty of laundering a client’s drug proceeds. A federal judge ordered him to report to prison by July 8.