BCBA Spotlight

Six New Administrative Law Judges Join Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings

Six newly appointed administrative law judges (ALJs) began their administrative judiciary career last month at the Hunt Valley headquarters of the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH), an independent agency within the executive branch of Maryland State government. Appointed by Chief Administrative Law Judge Chung K. Pak, the new ALJs bring a wide range of legal experience to the agency that conducts administrative hearings for approximately thirty State agencies, covering over 500 different case types. The following are the OAH’s newest administrative law judges: conducting videoconference hearings and reviewing and signing drafted appellate decisions by attorneys.

Judge Brouwer is a graduate of Loyola University Maryland and the University of Baltimore School of Law. He started his legal career clerking for the Honorable Thomas F. Stansfield in the Circuit Court for Carroll County. From there, Judge Brouwer joined the Carroll County State’s Attorney’s Office, where he worked as a prosecutor for five years before joining the Office of the Attorney General, representing the Maryland Department of Labor.

Judge Diehl attended the College of William and Mary and received a B.A. in International Relations and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Baltimore School of Law. Judge Diehl clerked for the Honorable Audrey J.S. Carrion in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. She was an Assistant State’s Attorney in Baltimore City from August 2005 until July 2017. In this role, Judge Diehl prosecuted juvenile matters, misdemeanor jury trials, and general felony cases such as robberies, carjackings, assault in the first degree, shootings, and handgun cases, spending the last six years in the Homicide Unit. From July 2017 to March 2023, Judge Diehl was an Assistant State’s Attorney for Harford County, where she prosecuted felony cases.

Judge Burroughs, a graduate of St. Mary’s College of Maryland and the University of Baltimore School of Law, started her legal career clerking for the Honorable Jan M. Alexander in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. Judge Burroughs was most recently a Supervisory Senior Counsel within the Department of Veteran Affairs, Board of Veterans’ Appeals. In this role, she exercised supervisory authority and responsibility for assigning work and reviewing others’ work products, as well as the administrative/technical and personnel management functions relative to the attorneys she supervised. Judge Burroughs also served as an Acting Veterans Law Judge, interviewed. It is a testament to both the diligence and collegiality of each person at OAH that the ALJ position is so highly sought after by members of the Maryland bar. I am sincerely grateful to OAH’s Hiring Committee: ALJs Hampton-EL, Daneker, Choi, and Henderson and Deputy Chief Clerk Cheryl Henson for their extraordinary efforts in the hiring process.

Judge Fruman is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Maryland School of Law, where she graduated with Order of the Coif honors. Judge Fruman clerked for the Honorable J. Norris Byrnes (retired) in the Circuit Court for Baltimore County. She has worked for the Maryland Office of the Attorney General since 2004. She was most recently a Senior Assistant Attorney General for the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU). Before MFCU, Judge Fruman was an administrative prosecutor for the Maryland Department of Health, Health Occupations Prosecution and Litigation Unit. Judge Fruman has held several leadership positions with the Baltimore County Bar Association, including the chair of the Advocate Committee, turning the monthly publication into an award-winning compendium.

Judge Hart graduated from Mount St. Mary’s University and the University of Maryland School of Law. He clerked for the Honorable Jeannie J. Hong in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. Judge Hart has worked at the Office of the Attorney General in the Department of Labor for the last 10 years.

Judge Osborne obtained her Juris Doctorate from Howard University School of Law, where she was a member of the award-winning Huver I. Brown Trial Advocacy Moot Court team. Judge Osborne completed her undergraduate studies at The American University, where she received the Frederick Douglass Merit Scholarship Award. She started her legal career clerking for the Honorable Sheila R. Tillerson Adams in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County. From 2007-2015, Judge Osborne was a litigator in private practice. She represented individuals and Fortune 500 companies in civil defense litigation. She also worked at a foreclosure defense firm, representing banks and servicers in foreclosure cases before the courts and in foreclosure mediations before the OAH. She comes to the OAH from Prince George’s County Government, where she has worked as an Associate County Attorney in the Office of Law since 2015. In that position, Judge Osborne provided legal advice on the County’s code and policies. She also represented the various County agencies before administrative tribunals and in circuit court on administrative matters.

Chief Judge Pak addressed the rigorous ALJ selection process:

The OAH received eighty-one ALJ applications. From that pool, OAH’s Hiring Committee interviewed forty highly qualified candidates and chose twenty “shortlist” candidates for the Directors of Operations and Quality Assurance and me to interview. We were impressed by the quality and competence of the candidates we

A December 1986 Maryland Bar Journal article, A Proposal for Maryland, proved prescient as we look back on the history of the OAH. In that article, then-Attorney General Stephen H. Sachs made a compelling case for revamping the framework of administrative hearings in Maryland. Mr. Sachs proposed creating a panel of independent administrative adjudicators. In 1988, this writer and many others testified before a State Senate committee considering Mr. Sachs’ concept of creating a centralized State agency responsible for conducting most administrative hearings in Maryland.

In 1990, Maryland joined a small group of central panel states when it established the OAH as a separate and independent agency responsible for adjudicating matters involving most of Maryland’s administrative agencies. Before 1990, State agencies employed hearing examiners to hear and decide cases involving the agencies they worked for. The legal community considered the OAH’s creation and the implementation of a central panel of independent judges to be a significant upgrade in administrative adjudication in Maryland. Among the advantages of establishing a centralized cadre of administrative law judges who hear a wide variety of cases were efficiencies related to administration, scheduling, and training, as well as the perceived independence of the decision-makers. Consolidating the hearing function into one agency also paved the way for focusing on ethics and professionalism and establishing an OAH Code of Judicial Conduct for Administrative Law Judges.

Some of the matters in the range of cases the OAH hears are State personnel appeals, including employee classification and disciplinary actions, grievances, and claims of discrimination; environmental law civil prosecutions and permit appeals; special education placement and reimbursement; Central Collection Unit cases; professional licensing and disciplinary actions; child abuse and neglect allegations; child support enforcement collections; entitlement benefit eligibility: pension and disability eligibility; Board of Education appeals; inmate grievances; Motor Vehicle