Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) on Tuesday nominated Special Court of Appeals Judge Matthew J. Fader to become the court’s chief judge.
Fader will replace Chief Judge Patrick L. Woodward, who hits the mandatory retirement age next week.
“I am confident that Judge Fader is the most qualified candidate to step into the chief judge role on the Maryland Court of Special Appeals,” Hogan said in a statement.
Prior to his appointment to the Court of Special Appeals a year ago, Fader was an assistant state attorney general and was the chief of litigation for the State of Maryland. Previously, he was a partner at the Pittsburgh-based firm K&L Gates, LLP, where he represented clients in commercial litigation in federal and state courts, as well as arbitrations. Fader also served as a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice from 1999-2002. He received his B.A. from the University of Virginia, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and received his J.D. from Yale Law School where he served as Senior Editor on the Yale Law Journal.
Woodward had served as chief judge of the Court of Special Appeals since May of 2017, and was first appointed to the court by former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) in 2005.
The Court of Special Appeals is the state’s second-highest court.
Josh Kurtz
Founding editor
Founding Editor Josh Kurtz is a veteran chronicler of Maryland politics and government. He began covering the State House in 1995 for The Gazette newspapers, and has been writing about state and local politics ever since. He was an editor at Roll Call, the Capitol Hill newspaper, for eight years, and for eight years was the editor of E&E Daily, which covers energy and environmental policy on Capitol Hill. For 6 1/2 years Kurtz wrote a weekly column on state politics for Center Maryland and has written for several other Maryland publications as well. Kurtz regularly gives speeches and appears on TV and radio shows to discuss Maryland politics.
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