GOVERNOR

GOVERNOR'S STAFF

FORMER STAFF

[photo, Jervis S. Finney, Chief Legal Counsel] JERVIS SPENCER FINNEY (1931-2017)
Chief Legal Counsel, Office of Governor, 2003-07

Chief Legal Counsel, Office of Governor, 2003 to January 17, 2007.

Member, Baltimore County Council, representing 2nd District, 1962-66; Regional Planning Council, 1963-66; Taxation and Fiscal Reform Problems Study Commission, 1967-68.

Member of Senate, 1967-74, representing District 13 (Baltimore County). Member, Committee on Taxation and Fiscal Matters, 1967; Finance Committee, 1967-74; Legislative Council, 1971-74; Joint Committee on Budget and Audit, 1971-74; Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, 1971-74; Special Legislative Reapportionment Committee, 1972. Co-Minority Leader, 1973-74.

Jervis S. Finney, Chief Legal Counsel, March 2003. Photo by S. V. Hopkins.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, 1975-78.

Member, State Ethics Commission, 1980-83; Ethics Law Code Revision Committee, 1994-95. Special Independent Counsel to Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics, 1997-98. Member, Special Study Commission on the Maryland Public Ethics Law, 1998. Chair, State Prosecutor Selection and Disabilities Commission, 1999-2002. Member, Commission to Review the Redistricting Process, Baltimore County, 2001-02. Executive Council of Governor-elect's Transition Team, 2002-03. Member, Drug Treatment Court Commission, 2003-06; Homeland Security Senior Policy Group, 2004-07.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, September 22, 1931. Attended Gilman School, Baltimore; Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; Princeton University, A.B., cum laude, 1953. Served in U.S. Army Paratroops, 11th Airborne Division, 1953-55. Harvard University School of Law, LL.B., 1958. Admitted to Maryland Bar, 1958; District of Columbia Bar, 1980. Attorney. Partner/associate, Williams, Grimes & Stinson, 1958-75. Partner, Ober, Kaler, Grimes & Shriver, 1978-99. Senior Counsel, Ober, Kaler, Grimes & Shriver, 1999-2003, 2007-16. President, Maryland Criminal Justice Administration Institute, Inc., 1999-2003. Member, American and Maryland Bar Associations. Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers (committee on legal ethics, 1987-98; Maryland state chair, 1993-94; chair, state judiciary committee, 1995-97). Member, American Bar Foundation. Baltimore County Administrator, Keep Maryland Beautiful, 1960. Chair, Baltimore Crusade, American Cancer Society, 1966; Member, Board of Directors, Maryland Division, Multiple Sclerosis Society. Legal Excellence Award for Advancement of Public Service Responsibility, Maryland Bar Foundation, 2003. Maryland Leadership in Law Award, Daily Record, 2003. Inductee, Maryland Squash Hall of Fame, 2005. Member, Brown Memorial Woodbrook Presbyterian Church, Towson, Maryland. Died in Baltimore County, April 9, 2017.

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