A Shocker In Maryland
The Maryland Daily Record reports some shocking news
D. Michael Lyles, the city attorney for Annapolis who was the finalist to lead Maryland’s Attorney Grievance Commission, said Tuesday that the state Supreme Court declined to confirm him for the job of bar counsel.
Lyles said the Attorney Grievance Commission nominated him for the position. He had been named last month as one of two finalists in contention to become bar counsel, a powerful role that involves investigating and prosecuting attorneys accused of ethical violations.
“I am very blessed to have been nominated by the Attorney Grievance Commission, and thank them and all the lawyers across the state who gave me a thumbs up,” Lyles said. “I’m just glad that I was considered.”
Lyles said he will stay on as the head of the Office of Law in Annapolis. A spokesperson for the city confirmed that Lyles still holds the position.
Additional details were unavailable Tuesday. The judiciary declined to comment, calling the issue a personnel matter. The Supreme Court has not publicly released a decision or made any announcement about the position, and the Attorney Grievance Commission has not posted any new information about the job.
Lyles said he received an email from Chief Justice Matthew J. Fader last week informing him that he had not been chosen to serve as bar counsel. Lyles referred questions about the reasons for the decision to the Supreme Court.
Before he joined Annapolis’s Office of Law in 2019, Lyles served as Of Counsel at Stroud Priest LLC, a law firm in Baltimore.
He also served as the executive director of the Prince George’s County Human Relations Commission, where he oversaw a 13-person office that prosecuted unlawful discrimination and civil rights violations on behalf of county residents. Lyles held that position from 2011 to 2018.
He ran unsuccessfully for Prince George’s County state’s attorney in 2018.
The other finalist for the bar counsel job was John J. Kuchno, deputy chief of litigation in the Maryland Attorney General’s Office. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
The Attorney Grievance Commission picks finalists for the bar counsel job and receives public comment on their qualifications. The commission’s choice for bar counsel is subject to approval from the Maryland Supreme Court.
If selected, Lyles would have been the first African American to serve as bar counsel in Maryland.
My sources tell me that there is a mass exodus of assistant bar counsel this year.
Whoever is chosen will likely have a large number of positions to fill.
A woefully understaffed bar counsel office is most assuredly not in the public interest. (Mike Frisch)