Our History
Miles & Stockbridge P.C. has enjoyed a rich history of well-planned growth, enduring client relationships and loyal community leadership across more than seven decades.
Founded in 1932 by Baltimore lawyers Clarence Miles and Seymour O’Brien who later merged with a firm founded by Enos Stockbridge creating the modern-day Miles & Stockbridge, the firm has played a significant role in shaping businesses and communities along the East Coast.
Miles & Stockbridge is proud of the distinguished lawyers in our past who built the foundation for the success we enjoy today. We carry forward their timeless core values of trust, excellence and integrity, supported by a culture that fosters leadership, diversity and respect.
DISTINGUISHED LAWYERS
CLARENCE W. MILES
ENOS S. STOCKBRIDGE
SEYMOUR O'BRIEN
RICHARD D. BENNETT
LOWELL R. BOWEN
JAMES R. EYLER
ROBERT L. KARWACKI
DUNCAN W. KEIR
HARRISON L. WINTER
ALEXANDER WRIGHT
CLARENCE W. MILES
In 1932, Clarence W. Miles joined with Seymour O'Brien to found the law firm now known as Miles & Stockbridge P.C. Mr. Miles' tenure of practice spanned more than 50 years, during which he served as City Solicitor of Salisbury and People's Counsel to the Public Service Commission prior to his many years in private practice. His private practice consisted initially of representing regulated utility companies throughout the East and Midwest. Later in his career, Mr. Miles became general counsel of Martin Marietta Corporation (now Lockheed Martin Corporation), a position in which he served for ten years; he also served as a director of the company.
Mr. Miles' contributions to the community equaled those to his law firm. For more than three decades, he was a significant state-wide presence in the Democratic Party. During World War II, he served overseas in the Army as a member of the staff of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, rising to the rank of Colonel. In 1953, he was elected president of the Maryland State Bar Association, and in the same year, worked with the city's mayor to bring the St. Louis Browns baseball franchise to Baltimore. He became the first president of the Baltimore Orioles, a position in which he served until 1955. In a lifetime of achievement, perhaps his greatest contribution was serving as the focal point for a group of Baltimore businessmen in founding the Greater Baltimore Committee; he served as that organization's first president in 1955 and remained active in its work for the rest of his life.
ENOS S. STOCKBRIDGE
The modern-day firm of Miles & Stockbridge P.C. was formed in 1953 when Mullikin, Stockbridge & Waters consolidated with Miles, Walsh, O'Brien & Morris. The merger not only joined two groups of capable lawyers, but had the added effect of complementing the highly visible Democratic persona of Clarence Miles with a public-spirited Republican named Enos Stockbridge.
Enos Stockbridge graduated from Amherst College in 1908 and the University of Maryland Law School in 1910. He engaged in the private practice of law from the date of his admission to the bar until his death in December 1963. His practice ranged from corporate securities to municipal finance and from counseling major corporations to administering personal estates. He was a director of ConChemCo and served as a director of and counsel to the Black & Decker Corporation, which remains one of the firm's principal clients.
Mr. Stockbridge's style is said to have been similar to, but more relaxed than, that of Seymour O'Brien. On Friday afternoons, he often "held court" from behind his desk for one or more lawyers within the firm, mixing good conversation with good spirits, and was fondly remembered for doing so.
Like Clarence Miles, Mr. Stockbridge made significant contributions to his community. In 1944, he was chosen by Governor McKeldin to chair the City Charter Revision Committee, which resulted in the adoption of the first complete revised charter in nearly 50 years. For his role, he was chosen in 1946 as the Advertising Club's "Man of the Year." At various times, he was chairman of the Commission on Administrative Organization of the State, chairman of the Department of Correction, a regent of the University of Maryland and president of the Baltimore City Bar Association. His home city and his law firm have every right to remember him with pride.
SEYMOUR O'BRIEN
Seymour O'Brien complemented Clarence Miles as Doc Blanchard complemented Glenn Davis: "Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside." Mr. O'Brien enjoyed significant responsibility for not only his own clients, but for those attracted by Mr. Miles. From the time he joined with Mr. Miles in 1932 until his death, Mr. O'Brien conducted his practice in the only way that he knew and was comfortable with: precision, thoroughness and pragmatism. Whether the client's needs were corporate, securities, commercial or estates and trusts, he prepared and supervised their work product daily, allowing only the highest quality to leave the office above his name.
Recollections of Mr. O’Brien are universally fond, though he was often a demanding mentor. He also was a willing teacher—so long as the resultant work-product met his standards! He said more than once that clients hired the firm not for a discussion of the law, but to solve their problems and help them to achieve their dreams. With engaging humor and meticulous attention to detail, Seymour O'Brien consistently satisfied those needs of the firm's clients. In so doing and in training others to practice accordingly, he contributed immeasurably to the success and growth of his law firm.
RICHARD D. BENNETT
On April 9, 2003, Dick Bennett was confirmed by the United States Senate, without a dissenting vote, as a judge of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland.
After 18 years in both private practice and in the United States Attorney's office, Mr. Bennett was appointed United States Attorney for Maryland in 1991, where he served until joining the firm on May 1, 1993. His practice concentrated on white collar criminal defense; he handled numerous high-profile cases, including the successful defense of a member of the Maryland State Legislature on public corruption charges. From 1997 to 1998, he also served as chief counsel to the Government Reform and Oversight Committee of the United States House of Representatives, investigating campaign finance violations arising out of the 1996 presidential election and the illegal transfer of missile technology to foreign governments.
His ready smile and unassuming manner have won him many friends both at Miles and in the community he served, where he was active in legal, political and charitable activities and causes. He has been honored as a fellow of the Maryland Bar Foundation and was elected as a delegate to the 1988, 1996 and 2000 Republican National Conventions.
LOWELL R. BOWEN
If St. Thomas More was truly a "man for all seasons," then Lowell Bowen is Miles & Stockbridge's St. Thomas More. Lowell's contributions to the firm are too numerous to mention, but a few stand out: co-partner with Bill Rafferty in charge of the Maryland National Bank (now Bank of America) client relationship in the late 1960s and early 1970s; general counsel to The Black & Decker Corporation from 1974 to 1989; managing partner of the firm from 1974 through 1991 and again in 2001 and 2002; the driving force behind the firm's expansion, both geographical and otherwise, during his terms as managing partner; and from the day he joined the firm in 1958, a resource of knowledge and skill in both legal and business matters, often tapped by those with whom he practiced. His broadly acknowledged skill and brilliance have been instrumental in the attraction and retention of many of the firm's valued clients.
Lowell has always made time, and contributed it generously to many causes. He has been a leader in the Maryland legal community, having taught at each of its law schools to both students and practicing lawyers. He has served on and chaired numerous commissions charged with drafting and revising the Annotated Code of Maryland, served as a member of its long-range planning committee and as a member of the Court of Appeals standing committee on rules of practice and procedure. He has also been active in the affairs of the Baltimore Opera Company, the Center Club and the Maryland Counsel for the Humanities. He epitomizes the adage that it is the busy person who will always do the job and do it well.
JAMES R. EYLER
Few lawyers with whom one is privileged to have practiced have the combination of qualities—quick mind, in-depth analysis, appreciation of economics and honed client skills—that mark the exceptional practitioner; Jim Eyler was one of those few. Mr. Eyler joined Miles & Stockbridge in 1968 as a litigator. His many skills were quickly noted by Ben Howard and Bob Karwacki and he was elected a partner in 1973, a member of the firm's governing committee in 1975 and chairman of its litigation department in 1976—positions he held throughout his tenure at Miles & Stockbridge. His practice spanned almost every conceivable area of litigation, from product liability and toxic tort to negligence and business and commercial matters. He tried cases in both trial and appellate courts and trained and mentored innumerable young litigators. Although always a leader within the firm, he never took himself too seriously; he was always both respected and well liked.
After serving a year as vice chairman of the firm, he was elected chairman in 1992 and served in that position for four years. He left the firm following his appointment as an associate judge of the Court of Special Appeals on January 9, 1996 where he continues to serve. He was active in many legal, social and community activities during his years of practice and remains active in legal and judicial matters, most notably as a member of the adjunct faculty for the law schools of the University of Maryland and the University of Baltimore, teaching classes in trial practice and advocacy.
ROBERT L. KARWACKI
Bob Karwacki was instrumental in the expansion and energizing of the litigation practice of Miles & Stockbridge. After clerking with Judge Collins of the Court of Appeals of Maryland for a year, Mr. Karwacki spent six years as an associate with the firm. After a two-year appointment as an assistant attorney general, he returned to the firm as a partner in 1965. His engaging sense of humor and quick mind appealed to both clients and fellow lawyers; his practice was fast-paced and energized. During his tenure, the firm's litigation department began its period of rapid expansion, which continues to this day.
In 1973, Mr. Karwacki was appointed an associate judge of the Supreme Bench of Baltimore City (now the Circuit Court) and served as administrative judge of that court from 1978 to 1984. He was appointed an associate judge of the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland in 1984, where he served until his appointment in 1990 to the Court of Appeals of Maryland; he retired from that court in 1997. During his service on the bench, he served on and chaired many civic and legal boards and commissions; he was especially active with the cause of juvenile justice and the University of Maryland Law School Alumni Association. He is currently enjoying the "good life" in Chester, Maryland.
The firm is fortunate to have Mr. Karwacki’s daughter, Ann Karwacki Goodman, as a lawyer in its Easton office.
DUNCAN W. KEIR
Duncan Keir, an honors graduate from the University of Maryland Law School in 1975, joined Miles & Stockbridge as an associate that year and became a partner in 1981. Mr. Keir concentrated his practice in the area of creditors' rights and chaired the firm's newly formed practice group in that area until his departure. He exhibited to his clients and fellow attorneys at the firm both a love for and an intricate knowledge of the law in his subject matter area, coupled with a quick wit and friendly disposition.
In 1991, Mr. Keir left private practice to become deputy general counsel, in charge of the Office of Special Assets Counsel, with the firm's client Maryland National Bank. He brought much-needed experience to an institution beset with large numbers of distressed real estate loans, precipitated by the troubled industry economy from 1989 through 1991.
In 1993, he was appointed United States Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Maryland. In 2005, he became the chief judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Maryland, where he continues to serve. Judge Keir served as circuit governor for the Fourth Circuit on the Board of Governors of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges from 1999 through 2002 and has been elected a fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy. In his free time, he collects trains and has an elaborate train garden, with many antique trains, in his home.
HARRISON L. WINTER
Following graduation from the University of Maryland Law School in 1944, Harrison Winter entered private practice. However, his career was largely devoted to public service. While engaged in private practice, he also served the State of Maryland as an assistant attorney general from 1948 to 1951 and a deputy attorney general from 1954 to 1955. During Mr. Winter's tenure at Miles & Stockbridge, his practice was that of a true generalist and encompassed everything from litigation to bond financings. He is remembered as being as adept in a courtroom as in a conference room.
Mr. Winter left Miles & Stockbridge in 1959 to become City Solicitor for Baltimore City, where he served until his appointment in 1962 by President Kennedy as a federal judge on the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. In 1966, President Johnson nominated Judge Winter to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit; he was confirmed in June 1966 and continued to serve until his death in 1990. He served as chief judge of that court from 1981 to 1989.
The recollections of Judge Winter as a jurist are universally favorable. He is remembered by those who appeared before him as knowledgeable, fair and decisive, always well-versed in the facts of the matter before him.
ALEXANDER WRIGHT, JR.
On February 27, 2008, Alex Wright was sworn in as an associate judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals.
While at Miles & Stockbridge, Mr. Wright was the chairman of the firm's Alternative Dispute Resolution group and also served as co-chair of the firm's Diversity Committee. His practice focused on arbitration, mediation and dispute resolution with a particular emphasis on matters involving medical malpractice, personal injury, construction, domestic, bankruptcy and labor and employment law. He was on various national panels as an arbitrator, including the National Association of Security Dealers, the American Arbitration Association, the New York Stock Exchange and the National Arbitration Forum.
Prior to joining Miles & Stockbridge in 2003, Mr. Wright served for nearly 10 years as a Baltimore County judge, both in the district and circuit courts. While on the bench, Judge Wright presided over a docket that included cases ranging from multimillion-dollar medical malpractice cases to death penalty cases. His career also has included appointments as assistant attorney general and as principal counsel to a number of state agencies of the State of Maryland, including the Department of Economic and Employment Development and the Office of Judicial Affairs. Earlier in his legal career, he served as an assistant attorney general in the State's Department of Personnel, as an associate in private practice, and as an assistant public defender for Baltimore City.
While in the attorney general's office, Mr. Wright handled appellate cases on various topics, including salary grades and workers' compensation. He also supervised assistants handling unemployment appeals, including class action appeals. Mr. Wright has significant experience handling employee grievances, arbitration, and litigation of public sector employment cases. In addition, he has presided over varied employment cases involving restrictive covenants and employment-related torts.
As part of a newly-instituted multi-disciplinary risk management and avoidance project, Mr. Wright was retained to make an assessment of an office unit for a major manufacturer. There were allegations of discrimination and reverse discrimination. The initial request was for a recommendation for a diversity trainer. The firm’s Alternative Dispute Resolution group was successful in convincing management that training that focused on accepting differences was not going to get to the core issues causing the conflict. After an assessment of the problem, the group determined that the problem was related more to organization and communication. Recommendations were made to change the organization chart, train employees, restructure the workplace and to take certain disciplinary actions. The unit has begun to work cohesively.
