The bill ultimately passed, only to be vetoed by Gov. William Donald Schaefer (D). By that time, however, a court ruling had allowed Angelos to move his cases forward. The fight foreshadowed other legislation in Annapolis that critics came to deride as "Angelos bills."
In 1996, for example, Angelos successfully lobbied legislators to add four Baltimore judgeships when clogged dockets were delaying asbestos lawsuits. The move thwarted the will of the state's highest-ranking judge, whose statistical analysis of judicial needs had guided legislators' decisions for the previous 17 years.
At spring training 1994, Peter G. Angelos is flanked by Orioles Rafael Palmeiro, left, and Chris Sabo. Angelos, who built his practice representing workers, refused to field a team of replacement players during the 1994-95 baseball strike.
(James A. Finley -- AP)
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"He and the judge got in a pushing contest . . . and Mr. Angelos prevailed," recalled Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr. (D-Calvert) with a hint of admiration.
As part of his lobbying effort that year, Angelos brought the Orioles' famous iron-man shortstop, Cal Ripken Jr., to Annapolis, where senators and delegates lined up for photos at a reception.
Not everyone approved of Angelos's tactics.
"What we have in this state is one lawyer who, whenever he gets a decision he doesn't like in the courts, can come here and have that decision overturned by the legislature," then-Del. Robert L. Flanagan (R-Howard), the House minority whip, complained at one point.
Angelos would face his fiercest resistance in Annapolis a few years later when he sought to collect a fee for his law firm's representation of Maryland in litigation against the tobacco industry. Angelos successfully bid in 1996 for a contract that called for his firm to keep 25 percent of money Maryland recovered to help treat Medicaid recipients made ill by smoking. Victory was far from assured, and Angelos's firm spent several million dollars upfront.
Maryland's legal action was ultimately preempted by a national tobacco settlement that steered more than $4 billion to the state. Angelos wanted his 25 percent fee, but state leaders rebuffed him. After an ugly fight, in March 2002, Angelos settled for $150 million, slightly more than recommended by an arbitration panel that reviewed the case without Angelos's participation.
In an interview, John Coale, a lawyer involved in the exploratory stages of national tobacco litigation, accused Angelos of displaying "unimaginable greed" during the episode.
"Peter Angelos . . . didn't do anything exceptional," said Coale, who was prepared to testify against Angelos in the dispute with the state. "I think his conduct was outrageous. . . . No other lawyer in the country did that."
Angelos said the dispute was a contract fight in which "the state didn't want to honor its contract. Obviously, I was displeased by what they did, to put it mildly."
The fight soured Angelos's relationships with several Democratic officials, including then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening.
His relationship with Glendening's successor, Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), has proved surprisingly saccharine. Over the past decade, Angelos became a prolific financial contributor to Democratic candidates and party committees, with donations exceeding $1 million in some election cycles.
Shortly after Ehrlich's 2002 election, Angelos and the new governor dined in Baltimore. Angelos said his primary goal was to pitch efforts to revitalize Baltimore's West Side, an initiative that has since won millions in state funding. Angelos later contributed to Ehrlich's reelection race, though he cautioned against reading too much into that, saying he remains an "ardent Democrat."
