Michael Whalen:
CLASS OF 1964
Ayer High SchoolClass of 1964
Ayer, MA
Michael's Story
After Ayer High School I attended the University of Maryland (Munich, Germany & College Park, Md. campuses), graduating in 1969 and I received my law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1973. My first marriage failed and I remarried in 1998. I have a son who lives in California and two stepdaughters who live in the Metropolitan Washington area. One practices law at Arnold and Porter in the District of Columbia and the other is a real estate agent in Annapolis. I really enjoyed my time at Ayer High School and the many friends I made there. The following is my formal bio:
Michael Patrick Whalen is a Senior Judge of the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Maryland, having been appointed as an Associate Judge by Governor Parris N. Glendening on November 2, 1999. He was elected to a full fifteen year term in November, 2000 and he served as the Circuit Court's Coordinating Judge for Criminal Operations from 2003 until his retirement and recall in late 2015. Prior to his appointment to the Circuit Court, Judge Whalen served on the District Court, 5th District.
Judge Whalen began his career in the Office of the State's Attorney for Prince George's County, Maryland in 1974 under longtime State's Attorney Arthur A. "Bud" Marshall, Jr., where he spent the next twelve years specializing in homicide, rape and other violent crimes prosecution. In 1977 he was appointed Chief of the Major Offender Unit and in 1981 he was made Chief of the Felony Trials Division. Elevated to the position of Deputy State Attorney for Operations in 1983, Judge Whalen ran the day-to-day legal operations of the office and supervised the trial and investigative divisions. During his prosecutorial career, he tried well over 100 major felony jury trials of all classifications, including death penalty, and many of the Metropolitan Washington areas most publicized murders. In 1982 the Maryland State's Attorneys Association honored him with the John S. Holiday Award and sent him on scholarship to the University of Houston to take the career prosecutor's course sponsored by the National College of District Attorneys (NCDA). He was named the Arthur A. Marshall, Jr. Outstanding Prosecutor of the year in 1986.
Judge Whalen left the State's Att...Expand for more
orney's Office in 1986 and became Of Counsel with the law firm of Knight, Manzi, Brennan & Ostrom, P.A. while also serving as Senior Attorney with the American Prosecutor's Research Institute (APRI), a research and technical affiliate of the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA). During his tenure with APRI, he organized and presented programs throughout the United States to prosecutors on trial tactics and strategy in specialty cases and he was co-editor and contributing author of the trial manual, Investigation and Prosecution of Child Abuse (APRI/NDAA, 1987).
In 1988 Judge Whalen was appointed by Prince George's County Executive and future Governor, Parris N. Glendening to serve as the County Attorney for Prince George's County where he managed the legal operations of the County Government for over seven years until his appointment to the bench in 1995. He has also served as the President of the Prince George's County Bar Association (1993-4), as a member of the Board of Governors of the Maryland State Bar Association (1994-6), as Co-Chairman of the Criminal Law Platform Committee for Governor Parris N. Glendening (1993-5), and as a member of the Criminal Law Section Council of the Maryland State Bar Association (2007-9), among many other professional organizations. He is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland Global Campus, formerly UMUC, where he taught for over 30 years in the Criminal Justice and Legal Studies Programs and where he served on the Criminal Justice and Legal Studies Advisory Boards. He was the recipient of the Judge William R. Robie Award for outstanding contributions to the Legal Studies Program (1998), the Stanley J. Drazek Teaching Excellence Award, UMUC's highest teaching honor (2006), and he was nominated by UMUC for the CASE U.S. Professor of the Year Award (2007). He also lectures at the Maryland Judicial College and to a wide variety of law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and the defense bar.
His admissions include the Court of Appeals of Maryland (1974), the Supreme Court of the United States (1980), the District of Columbia Court of Appeals (1981), the United States District Court of Maryland (1984), and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1988).
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