Maryland Bar Foundation

 

The Maryland Bar Foundation is a non-profit charitable corporation organized in 1965, with the objective of obtaining gifts and contributions to be used for the following purposes:

 

  • To foster and maintain the honor and integrity of the profession of the law;
  • To improve and to facilitate the administration of justice;
  • To promote the study of the law and research therein, the diffusion of knowledge thereof, and the continuing education of lawyer

The Foundation has carried out these purposes by making grants to organizations that work within Maryland to accomplish the goals of the Foundation.

NEWS AND EVENTS

MARYLAND BAR FOUNDATION FELLOWS
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED

Your financial support is vital to the foundation. As a professional and public-minded citizen, you are presented with a unique opportunity to contribute to and encourage an organization designed to serve the highest aims of the legal profession. And each time the Bar Foundation puts the justice system to work in the public interest, it benefits you -- building good will for you and your profession within the State of Maryland and reflecting a real record of accomplishment in the eyes of the public.

ENDOWMENT FUND

The Maryland Bar Foundation Endowment Fund was established to assure long term funding for public and professional service projects. Although gifts of any size are gratefully accepted, those of $500 or more may be designated by the donor to become part of the Endowment Fund. The earnings of the Fund will be used to further the goals of the Foundation.

MEMORIALS

Lawyers and their families are encouraged to remember the Foundation or its Endowment Fund for memorial giving through appropriate provision in their wills.

HOW WILL I BENEFIT?

  1. You will have the satisfaction of knowing that your gift is being used in support of projects that enhance the legal profession and improve the administration of justice within the State of Maryland.
  2. The Rules of Professional Conduct points out the lawyer's obligation to improve the legal system. Since many lawyers cannot participate in worthwhile programs to the degree they would like to because of constraints placed upon their time, supporting the work of the Maryland Bar Foundation is one of the most meaningful ways to meet this obligation.
  3. You will be contributing to the only foundation that works solely within the State of Maryland that is devoted to improving the administration of justice and to improving the public's knowledge of the law.
  4. to cause to be published and to distribute addresses, reports, treatises and other literary works on legal subjects
  5. to maintain a law library
  6. to acquire, preserve and exhibit rare books and documents, objects of art, and items of historical interest having legal significance or bearing on the administration of justice

ACTIVITIES AND GRANTS

The Bar Foundation has funded a number of projects designed to improve delivery of legal services and the administration of justice in Maryland. Recent grants have helped to support Law Links, a joint program through the MSBA and several local bar associations that oversees summer legal internships for at-risk high school students.

Assistance was also provided to the Citizenship Law-Related Education Program for its Baltimore City Teen Court Committee which established a Teen Court in Baltimore City to provide peer-driven alternative sentencing for delinquent teens.

Within the past year a grant was also made to the MSBA's Select Committee on Gender Equality for its ten-year retrospective examination of the progress made in implementing the recommendations of the Maryland Special Joint Committee Report on Gender Bias in the Courts, issued in 1989. These are but a few of the contributions made by the Bar Foundation in furtherance of its goals.  Click here for a Grant Application.

MEMBERSHIP AS A BAR FOUNDATION FELLOW

Membership in the Fellows is, first, recognition of your “outstanding dedication and contribution to maintaining the honor and integrity of the legal profession, the improvement and facilitation of the administration of justice, the work of the organized Bar of Maryland and civic leadership.” Membership as a regular Fellow is limited to not more than 2.5% of MSBA membership. Invitations are extended only after nomination by a current Fellow and endorsement by the Board of Directors of the Foundation.

Questions regarding the Maryland Bar Foundation can be directed to Nicole Earl

2011-2012 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Hon. Karen Murphy Jensen – President
Robert J. Kresslein – Vice President
Anne K. Albright – Secretary/Treasurer

Hon. Alison L. Asti
Thomas C. Cardaro
Alice S. Chong
Henry E. Dugan, Jr.
Hon. Lenore R. Gelfman
Katherine Kelly Howard
Hughie D. Hunt
Hon. Christopher B. Kehoe
Paul Kemp
Paul R. Kramer
John P. Kudel
Jerald B. Lurie
M. Natalie McSherry
Thomas D. Murphy
Michael W. Siri

THE FOUNDATION FELLOWS

John J. Murphy – Chair of the Fellows
Sara H. Arthur – Vice Chair of the Fellows