Maryland spends millions in taxpayer dollars on private lawyers but can't say how much

Konner Metz, The Baltimore Sun on Oct 26, 2026

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BALTIMORE — Maryland officials still cannot say how much taxpayer money the state spends on private lawyers, three months after the Comptroller’s Office said it would try to add up those costs.

In July, the Comptroller’s Office said it would review financial records to produce what would’ve been the first statewide estimate. But spokesman Bruce Nilson told The Baltimore Sun that the office “found no records the office compiles that could provide an official approximation” because agencies track their own expenditures.

The attorney general’s office, meanwhile, says it does not have the authority to fully oversee agency legal bills, leaving taxpayers without a reliable statewide total or a clear timeline for one.

The unresolved question of statewide spending comes after an audit released last week found the Office of the Attorney General did not adequately oversee outside counsel spending.

The Office of Legislative Audits identified $62.6 million in reported outside counsel payments over nearly four years. But the figure is not a reliable statewide accounting: Some payments were not recorded, while some included in the tally “were not for legal services,” according to state auditors.

Attorney General’s Office spokesperson Jennifer Donelan told The Sun the office “does not have centralized records of all spending” and cannot say how much spending may be missing from the $62.6 million figure.

Better records could help officials assess whether some legal work could be handled by government lawyers, said Daraius Irani, chief economist at Towson University’s Regional Economic Studies Institute.

“Any money that’s originally from a public sector to a private sector should be tracked,” particularly taxpayer dollars, Irani said.

The five agencies with the highest reported outside counsel spending during the audit period from June 16, 2022, through May 31, 2026, were:

•Maryland Transit Administration (MTA): $18.5 million

•Department of Juvenile Services (DJS): $9.2 million

•Department of Natural Resources (DNR): $4.5 million

•University of Maryland, College Park: $3.6 million

•State Highway Administration (SHA): $3.6 million

DNR spokesperson Gregg Bortz said the agency’s $4.5 million of spending reported in the audit is“mostly” for land acquisitions, such as settlement costs. “This money was paid to law firms but not for legal counsel,” Bortz said.

None of the five agencies provided year-to-year breakdowns of spending on outside lawyers, even though three of them — MTA, DJS and SHA — said they track the costs. The Sun filed requests under the Maryland Public Information Act for the information.

State agencies sometimes hire outside attorneys when cases require expertise their in-house lawyers lack. Under Maryland law, requests for outside counsel are subject to approval by the governor’s office, and the attorney general must establish that a case is “extraordinary or unforeseen.”

One example is Gov. Wes Moore’s use of outside counsel to represent him in a defamation lawsuit filed by Baltimore Sun co-owner David Smith. The lawsuit fell outside the audit period. The Board of Public Works approved $50,000 for an outside firm representing Moore.

JP Krahel, an accounting professor at Loyola University Maryland, said the tracking shortcomings do not necessarily mean “something nefarious” happened. Staff turnover and the loss of institutional knowledge are common organizational challenges, he said.

In its written response to auditors, the attorney general’s office said improved monitoring will “be beneficial for budgeting purposes,” but stopped short of committing to producing a year-to-year total of outside counsel spending, which auditors did not specifically recommend.

The office said it would meet with the Department of General Services and Department of Budget and Management by March 31, 2027, to discuss the best method to track outside legal spending. Once the agencies agree, the attorney general’s office will implement the plan by Dec. 31, 2027, it wrote to auditors.

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