This article was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.
This content was republished with permission from WTOP’s news partners at Maryland Matters. Sign up for Maryland Matters’ free email subscription today.
Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) appointed Judge Joseph M. Getty as Chief Judge and Judge Steven B. Gould to represent Montgomery County on the Maryland Court of Appeals Friday.
Both will replace roles held by Maryland Court of Appeals Chief Judge Mary Ellen Barbera, who will turn 70, the mandatory retirement age for appellate judges, next week.
A former top aide to Hogan, Getty, 69, will replace Barbera as Chief Judge — a position she’s held since 2013.
Getty’s tenure as chief judge will be short. He will reach the mandatory age of retirement in April 2022. The governor’s office said in a news release that the administration’s chief legal counsel has already been instructed to seek replacements for Getty and Court of Appeals Judge Robert N. McDonald, who will turn 70 in February 2022.
“I am … pleased to name Judge Getty as the state’s chief judge, and I know he will continue to provide exemplary service on the bench,” Hogan said in a statement.
Getty represented Carroll County as a Republican member of the Maryland House of Delegates from 1995 to 2003 and served in the Senate representing Carroll and Baltimore counties from 2011 until his resignation in 2015.
He was Hogan’s chief legislative officer from January 2015 until June 2016 when he was appointed to the Court of Appeals.
Gould will replace Barbera as the jurist representing Montgomery County on the state’s top court. Barbera has filled that role since 2008.
Gould, her successor, was appointed to the Maryland Court of Special Appeals — the state’s second-highest court — in April 2019. A trial lawyer and civil litigator, he was a founding partner in the Bethesda firm of Brown Gould and Kiely LLP (now Brown and Kiely), which has a business and personal injury practice.
“Judge Gould is a distinguished jurist committed to justice and fairness, and it is my privilege to elevate him to the state’s highest court,” Hogan said in a statement. “…[O]n behalf of all Marylanders, I want to extend my sincere appreciation to Chief Judge Barbera, and wish her well in her retirement.”
