Evelyn O. A. Darden

Evelyn O. A. Darden, a resident of Howard County and a native of Annapolis, Maryland, was the 11th African American woman ever to be admitted to the Maryland Bar.

A graduate of the Morgan State University and the University of Maryland School of Law, she completed the Harvard Law School Institute for Lawyers with a special emphasis on Class Action Torts and Constitution Law. She was the founder of Addison-Darden, a mother-son law firm, established on April 1, 1988.

Her legal career began in 1976, and includes over four decades of representation at the local, state, and federal levels. Her early legal training began at Johnson and Smith under the tutelage of the Honorable Judge Kenneth L. Johnson, a trail-blazing civil rights attorney. As an associate at Johnson and Smith, and later as a supervisory trial attorney at the Baltimore District Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Darden was responsible for several major class action Title VII cases against Fortune 500 companies in Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia. Her class action civil rights cases focused primarily on behalf of African American and female police officers, firefighters, longshoremen, and steel workers in Maryland and across the nation who had been deprived of equal pay, promotions, and other benefits, and who had suffered the consequences of wrongful discharge, demotions and failure to hire. As a result of these Title VII class action lawsuits, sweeping changes were made in the Baltimore City Police Department and Fire Department. African American police and fire chiefs and other high-ranking officers across the United States owe a debt of gratitude to the pioneering civil rights litigation of Evelyn Darden and her mentor, Judge Johnson.

Darden was one of the first African American women to serve as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Maryland. In January 1983, she accompanied Kurt L. Schmoke to the Baltimore City State's Attorney's Office and was assigned to the Special Narcotics and Homicide units. She prosecuted numerous jury trials and was responsible for eliminating several major drug rings in Baltimore City.

Her extensive trial experience included a five-year partnership with renowned trial attorney Johnny Cochran, who nominated her for the National Trial Lawyer of the Year for Public Justice Award In 2002. Her trial experience also earned her a two-term position on the Board of Governors for the Maryland Trial Attorneys. There, she served on the legislative committee and was instrumental in lobbying efforts that resulted in the repeal of the Parent-Child Immunity Law in Maryland. In private practice, she has consistently focused on keeping Maryland families safe and securing justice and large monetary awards for victims of negligence.

Darden earned national recognition, and the Maryland Trial Lawyer of the Year Award, for the landmark settlement in Gary J. vs. State of Maryland, for 4.5 million dollars, including an education fund for 900 male juveniles who were physically and emotionally abused at the Juvenile Boot Camps in Western Maryland.

Darden is descended from Marylander Rev. Samuel Green, Sr., 1802-1877, an Underground Railroad Conductor, Visionary Founder of Morgan State University, and first cousin to Harriet Tubman. (Rev. Green was the only person ever caught, arrested, and sentenced to 10 years in the State Penitentiary in 1857 for possessing an anti-slavery publication, Uncle Tom's Cabin.)

Darden continues to fight for justice, serving the community as a volunteer, providing Pro Bono counsel for several organizations, and as an international motivational and cultural awareness speaker.

"Motivation, determination, perseverance, the North Star on the road less traveled will ultimately lead to a successful journey, by His Grace."