Ronald E. Richardson
Associate
PRACTICE AREAS: MEDICAL MALPRACTICE, PERSONAL INJURY, CIVIL RIGHTS, ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
A native of Baltimore, Ronald E. Richardson has overcome many obstacles in life to become one of the city’s most prominent African-American lawyers, as well as a civic leader who is dedicated to his family, his faith, his profession, and helping others succeed in life.
Early Years
His Master’s thesis was on the disparate sentencing and parole statistics in Massachusetts prisons based on race and class. He earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Loyola Law School’s evening program in Los Angeles, California while working full-time as a Litigation Assistant in Atlantic Richfield’s Legal Department.
Upon graduation, Mr. Richardson returned to Baltimore and began his employment with Peter Angelos Law, P.C. where, for 35 years, he specialized in various forms of mass tort litigation. He is licensed to practice in the states of Maryland, the District of Columbia, and New York, in the Federal District Court, in the United States Court of Appeals Fourth Circuit, and in the Supreme Court of the United States of America.
Career Highlights
While at Peter Angelos Law, Mr. Richardson served as lead or co-lead counsel on mass tort litigation that garnered well over $1 billion dollars in verdicts and settlements. Two of his most successful trial verdicts occurred in 1993 and 2011. In 1993, in what is commonly referred to as Consol. II, Mr. Richardson served as co-lead counsel in a consolidated mass tort common issues trial on behalf of over 8,000 asbestos clients that resulted in unprecedented verdicts and settlements.
In 2011, as co-lead counsel in a mass tort action against ExxonMobil Corporation, he represented 164 households and businesses in Jacksonville, Maryland, whose potable wells were contaminated by a 26,000-gallon gasoline release from an ExxonMobil service station in 2006. The six-month trial in the Baltimore County Circuit Court resulted in a jury verdict of $1.5 billion in compensatory and punitive damages; one of the largest civil verdicts in Maryland history.
Mr. Richardson co-founded the Monumental City Bar Foundation in 1998. He served as a member/chair of the Foundation’s Board of Directors until 2018. He has raised funds for scholarships and community grants as chair of the Foundation’s annual golf fundraiser. Under his leadership, the Foundation worked with the Bar Association of Baltimore City to host a Symposium on Diversity in the Legal Profession.
He has served on the Maryland State Bar Association Board of Governors; Maryland State Bar Association Membership Committee; Board of Trustees of the Baltimore Bar Foundation and as Maryland State Bar Local and Specialty Bar Liaison; Maryland State Bar Professionalism Course Faculty Member; Bar Association of Baltimore City Member-at-Large; Bar Association of Baltimore City Nominations Committee Chair; National Bar Association Mid-Year Conference Gertrude E. Rush Award Dinner Committee Co-Chair and President of Monumental City Bar Association.
In 2001, he sought and obtained financing to produce, through the Monumental City Bar Foundation and in conjunction with Maryland Public Television, Color at The Bar. This production documented the history of African-American lawyers and judges in the Baltimore metropolitan area. In 2004, he co-chaired the Maryland State Bar Association’s Oral Video History Committee through which he assisted in the organization and supervision of the production of Maryland State Bar Association: An Oral History featuring remarks from 24 MSBA past presidents from 1974-2004.
His civic activities included service as a member of the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Bureau of Maryland; the Board of Trustees of Loyola High School and the Gamma Omicron Omega Graduate Chapter of Iota Phi Theta, Inc.