Washington Post, March 4, 2022:
“The Maryland Court of Appeals said in its ruling Thursday that Ficker has been the subject of a long history of complaints of professional misconduct that expand over three generations of the bar counsel.
Ficker, in a three-way race for the Republican nomination, said in an email Saturday the ruling was “a political decision by recent political appointees. … My clients love me. It is judges and lawyers complaining.”
The Court of Appeals decision was noteworthy for citing four prior appearances by Mr. Ficker in the Court of Appeals for disciplinary matters in 1990, 1998, 2007 and 2017 as well as two private (?) reprimands by the Attorney Grievance Commission that did not rise to direct Court review.
Mr. Ficker is probably known by non-attorneys more for his antics as a basketball heckler until Washington banned him from their home games, and for referenda in Montgomery County on anti-tax matters. To us attorneys, he was known as a high-volume, see-him-everywhere criminal defense attorney who was among the first to take mail marketing on, including litigating for attorneys’ free speech rights in that context.
While I was not always a fan of Mr. Ficker’s style, there can be no doubt that he has made a serious impact on the Bar and on public policy in Maryland, and that he is definitely his own man and not a knock-off of someone else. I wish him well, this unfortunate news notwithstanding.
