Louis A. Becker conducts mediations and settlement conferences for the Circuit Courts, statewide and the Appellate Court of Maryland (ACM) nee: Court of Special Appeals (COSA) as well as arbitrations since assuming status as a Senior Judge. He continues to preside over civil and criminal trials and matters, statewide.
The areas of civil law in which he mediates are as follows : business, contract and corporate, real property including condominium & community associations, computer/intellectual property, products liability, personal injury, employment, taxation, professional malpractice including medical, and family and elder law. He is certified and trained as a mediator with ACM (COSA), the University of Maryland Law School, the Pepperdine Institute and in Elder mediation.
He was appointed to the Circuit Court for Howard County in 2005, after serving on the District Court of Maryland, where he started and presided over the first Drug/DUI Court there. During that time, he was also assigned to COSA to hear appellate cases. He practiced law from 1971 to 1989 with Sybert, Sybert & Nippard as well as a founding partner with Becker, Spahn, Harvis, Fila & Colt practicing in the Howard County/Central Maryland area.
Particularly helpful to his mediation practice has been service on varied judiciary, bar association and community organizations and entities, i.e., the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission, the Judiciary Specialty Problem Solving Courts, Mental Health & Addictions and its Equal Justice Committees as well as the Attorney General’s COVID 19 Task Forces and the Board of Trustees for the Howard County Library System. In addition to teaching courses for the Maryland Judicial Institute/College including the New Judges’ Orientation Course, Bar Associations’ CLE courses educating judge and lawyers, he was as adjunct professor at the University of Baltimore Law School (1994-2005, 2013), receiving am award as Adjunct Professor of the Year.
His earlier practical experiences dealing with individuals and basic human problems, often corporate and business related, include those as a trainee Trust Company officer, a pharmaceutical account representative, and an adjunct professor teaching business law to undergraduates as well as a Military Intelligence officer, before and after becoming a lawyer and judge. Those practical experiences as well as those solving basic as well as complex legal problems in the trial as well as appellate courts, have greatly enhanced the common sense and human skills needed to be an effective mediator.