These Little Town Blues

Ahh, so the Acela speeds through Maryland twice a day without so much as a pit stop; who cares? At least the state’s largest law firm made (subscriber-only link) “The 2007 Working Mother & Flex-Time Lawyers Best Law Firms For Women” list. Or did it?

We speak, of course, of DLA Piper US LLP, that multinational megafirm referred to around these parts as “Baltimore-based” or, when we’re feeling especially inclusive, “Baltimore- and Chicago-based.” Nobody’s ever called to demand a correction, either way.

So, why would the survey say the home office is in New York?

“We officially do not have a home office,” explains the firm’s (New York-based) spokesman, Jason Costa. Instead, Baltimore is a U.S. “foundation office,” along with Chicago and San Diego, since those are the cities where DLA Piper’s “legacy firms” started — Piper & Marbury, Rudnick & Wolfe and Gray Cary, respectively.

Apparently Working Mother wouldn’t take “homeless” for an answer, though, so “We went with the office where Heidi Levine, the partner who co-heads our Leadership Alliance for Women Group, is based,” Costa wrote in an e-mail. “There was no right answer, so we just went with NY.”

For the record, several other non-Maryland firms with an in-state presence made the “best” list, including Duane Morris of Philadelphia; Hogan & Hartson of Washington, D.C.; Holland & Knight, New York; McGuireWoods of Richmond; Patton Boggs, Washington, D.C.; WilmerHale, Washington, D.C.; and former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s firm, Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, Winston-Salem, N.C.

Above, Luke Marbury speaks at the dedication of the William L. Marbury, Jr Building on Smith Ave. Photo by Eric Stocklin.

-BARBARA GRZINCIC, Managing Editor, Law