GREENBELT, Md. (June 18, 2014) – Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A. is pleased to announce that founding firm member Walter E. Laake, Jr. has received the James H. Taylor Award from the Prince George’s County Bar Association (PGCBA) for his outstanding contributions to the bar and the community.
Laake, who currently serves as Of Counsel to the firm, was honored at the PGCBA’s June 10 Annual Meeting.
“Throughout his career, Walter has set a high standard of excellence through his talent and reputation as one of the region’s leading personal injury lawyers and as an ambassador for the local bar community,” said Burt M. Kahn, the firm’s president. “We congratulate Walter on this recognition and express our gratitude for his ongoing contributions to the firm.”
The PGCBA award is named after Judge Taylor, who was appointed to the bench of the Seventh Judicial Circuit of Maryland in November 1969 and served for 18 years, mainly handling family and juvenile cases. Judge Taylor was the first African-American circuit court judge in Prince George’s County.
Laake has more than four decades of experience as a personal injury lawyer, obtaining millions of dollars in verdicts and settlements for injured clients during his career. Among his recent victories, Laake obtained a $1 million recovery on behalf of a disabled father of four in a medical malpractice action, and a $4.5 million settlement with a Washington, DC hospital for the family of an infant who suffered brain injury due to a doctor’s negligence. In the 1970s, Laake litigated the first case in Maryland that applied strict liability to a product liability case.
Laake is a past president of the Maryland Association for Justice (formerly the Maryland Trial Lawyers Association) and the PGCBA.
