THOMAS RIES

Wasserman White Family Law LLC

Thomas C. Ries, of counsel with Wasserman White Family Law LLC, has represented clients in complex divorce and family law matters throughout Maryland since 1979.

Ries developed an interest in pursuing a law degree while still a student at Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, years before Watergate brought attorneys into the national spotlight. He was drawn to the idea that a legal background would open opportunities and, more personally, that it would allow him to help individuals solve problems they encountered in their own lives.

He earned his undergraduate degree from Emory University before enrolling at the University of Maryland Carey School of Law. After finishing in the middle of his class following his first year, failing to make Law Review and not landing a summer clerkship, he spent that summer teaching tennis for Baltimore County Parks and Recreation. He returned to law school with what he describes as “real purpose and focus,” concentrating on business and tax courses — training he did not know at the time would suit him perfectly in divorce and family law, where Maryland law was about to change dramatically. Two years later, he graduated with honors.

A past president of the Maryland Chapter of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, Ries served on the national board of governors from 2008 to 2010 and co-chaired the AAML Institute for Family Law Associates national training program from 2006 to 2018. He was honored as AAML Fellow of the Year in 2015. Beginning in 2008, he became a co-author of Fader’s Maryland Family Law, the leading publication on family law issues in Maryland, and served as the Official Reporter for Maryland in the American Bar Association Family Law Quarterly “Law in the Fifty States” annual survey from 1995 to 2017. Over the course of his career, he has written about and taught family law topics to thousands of young lawyers at the national, state and local levels. He is also a certified family law arbitrator by the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers and has served as an appointed member of the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland Peer Review Committee since 2015.

Ries has been included in Best Lawyers in America for both family law and family law mediation and has been selected to Super Lawyers every year since 2007, earning Top 10, Top 50 and Top 100 recognition. In 2020, the Maryland State Bar Association Family & Juvenile Law Section honored him with the Beverly Ann Groner Award, given annually in recognition of a lawyer’s dedication to the practice of family law and who has exemplified the highest professional standards during a distinguished career. He is also a past chair of the Family Law Sections of both the Baltimore City and Maryland State Bar Associations.

Ries tells those entering the profession: “When you embark on your career, you need to understand that everything begins and ends with one word — your REPUTATION.” He counsels aspiring lawyers to think carefully about consequences before acting, noting that every statement and every action can carry unintended results, and that social media continues to pose potential problems. Looking ahead, he hopes to see the next generation of family law practitioners build experience from the ground up and not take shortcuts — including AI — until they have a strong command of the basics. He believes many situations do not have a clear right-or-wrong answer, and that the challenge for problem solvers is to bring parties together to create solutions that have reasonable components for everyone, found not in black-and-white outcomes but in the gray area.

Outside of the office, Ries and his wife, Leslie, a retired attorney, founded The John Fetting Fund for Breast Cancer Prevention, part of Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, which supports breast cancer prevention research. He also notes that music serves as one relaxing escape from the demands of private practice — and is willing to wager that he has attended more Grateful Dead concerts than any other honoree in any category.