Opinion – Honoring William L. Marbury Jr.

This Friday, March 11, The Johns Hopkins University will dedicate and rename in memory of William L. Marbury Jr. the beautiful Mount Washington home of DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary US LLP, designed by Charles Brickbauer of Baltimore. We commend The Johns Hopkins University — the new owner of the Marbury building — and the law firm Mr. Marbury helped to found for recognizing one of the legal giants of the 20th century.

While the law firm co-founded by William L. Marbury Jr., above, no longer bears his name, its award-winning Maryland headquarters in Mount Washington soon will.

Mr. Marbury (1901-1988) was an exemplary lawyer and citizen. He was a nationally known trial lawyer who handled many Supreme Court arguments and other high-profile cases, including the libel action by his childhood friend, Alger Hiss, against Whitaker Chambers that led to the discovery of the “Pumpkin Papers.” Locally, he successfully represented Parren Mitchell, a Congressional candidate who initially lost a primary election due to allegedly fraudulent voting practices. During World War II, he served his country with distinction as chief counsel of the procurement arm of the War Department, for which he received the Presidential Medal of Merit, the highest civilian honor awarded at that time. In 1948, he was elected a member of the Harvard Corp. and served until 1970. He was the first member of the corporation who had not graduated from Harvard College and the first without Boston family connections. Later, he received honorary degrees from the University of Maryland, Harvard University, and the University of Virginia, as well as the Fifty Year Award from the American Bar Foundation.Mr. Marbury exemplifies the highest professional and civic ideals of the legal profession. He was an early and unwavering champion of civil rights. On the national level, President Kennedy asked him to help create the Lawyers’ Committee on Civil Rights, an organization that provided legal representation in civil rights cases. Locally, Piper & Marbury, under his leadership and guidance, opened the nation’s first full-time law office located in an inner-city neighborhood to offer subsidized legal services to the poor. This early commitment to accessible legal services helped spawn the University of Maryland Legal Clinics and Baltimore’s Legal Aid Bureau. While president of the Peabody Institute, he was instrumental in the enrollment of black students in classes that would receive degree certification. In 1963, he served on the advisory committee that drafted a local ordinance outlawing racial discrimination in all places of public accommodation in Baltimore. Mr. Marbury also headed a commission on higher education that chided the state for inadequate and unequal funding of historically black colleges. That commission, anticipating the needs of the post-war baby boom, also recommended creating “junior colleges” to provide more affordable and accessible advanced education. Mr. Marbury contributed greatly to many of Baltimore’s important civic and cultural institutions. He was a member of the Greater Baltimore Committee and of the boards of the Urban Coalition, the Gilman School, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He was elected president of the Maryland State Bar Association. His lifelong interest in music led him to serve as a trustee for the Peabody Institute for more than 30 years, spending seven years as its president and more than a decade as its chairman of the board. This was a particularly tumultuous time for the institute and he is largely credited with preserving its superb library collection and advancing its reputation as an internationally known cultural center. We commend The Johns Hopkins University and DLA Piper for honoring those enduring values as exemplified by Mr. Marbury that make the practice of law an honorable profession.As we drive up or down the Jones Falls Expressway and gaze up at the unique green glass building hidden in the woods of Mount Washington, we can all be reminded of one of Baltimore’s great lawyers, William L. Marbury Jr.Editorial Advisory Board member Hugh Marbury is a partner at DLA Piper and William L. Marbury Jr.’s grandson.