Maryland Attorney General Becoming Real Lawyer
Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler transitioned to private practice this week, joining BuckleySandler after eight years heading the 467-lawyer OAG. True story: When Doug's mother found out he was joining a law firm, she called and said, "You're going to be a real lawyer!"
Following talks with 60 law firms (after last year's merger-fest, we didn't realize that many still existed), Doug found that 5-year-old BuckleySandler is the right fit because it's "hungry and growing." He'll help lead the government enforcement practice. The 150-lawyer firm began with a focus on financial institutions, and Doug wants to help its expansion in areas such as privacy and cybersecurity, state regulatory work, litigation and consumer protection. We snapped Doug flanked by chairman and executive partner Andrew Sandler and co-managing partner Ben Klubes.
One of the most fulfilling part of being MD's attorney general was helping negotiate the $28B National Mortgage Settlement, Doug says, including getting $1.5B for Maryland. The agreement came about while he was the president of the National Association of Attorneys General. While still president-elect of the organization, Doug decided he'd make his agenda "privacy in the digital age." He was told that the issue would be resolved by the time he got to be president, but found the opposite: cybersecurity and privacy are going to be an area for attorneys general "where you're going to see more and more expansion."
Doug's not counting out the possibility of returning to public service "a few years down the road if there's an opportunity to run for something, or be appointed to something." He lost his run for Maryland Governor last year in the primaries but has a long-held interest in government. (At 13, he interned for Sen. Birch Bayh and in college he attended the Democratic National Convention.) He ran Obama's campaign in Maryland and says he'll be heavily involved in Hillary Clinton's '16 campaign if she runs. Before Doug's eight years as MD AG, he was State's Attorney for Montgomery County and an AUSA in DC.
Doug's addition is part of BuckleySandler's broader expansion, Andy says. He points out that last year, two of the firm's largest client matters weren't related to financial services: a gaming industry matter and representing the Navajo Nation in a $554M breach of trust settlement. In the last couple of years, the firm also brought in former SDNY civil division chief Andrew Schilling to beef up the financial fraud task force, and Ben Olson from the CFPB.
Ben and Doug first met around 20 years ago, playing basketball with a group of lawyers; they later found they shared mutual friends even in high school. Another BuckleySandler partner, Jeff Naimon, went to Yale and UVA Law with Doug. Doug's stayed close with his law school friends. A group goes skiing every year in Sun Valley, including this year between Doug moving out of his AG office and into BuckleySandler. Doug's succeeded as MD AG by Brian Frosh.
