Joseph Tydings joined Dickstein Shapiro in 1996. Mr. Tydings is counsel to national and international clients, representing numerous Maryland businesses and private entities in particular. Today his practice focuses on counseling and “governmental” representation, particularly in Maryland and Washington, DC. In the domestic arena, he has worked as outside counsel for Giant Food Inc., in Maryland, on projects ranging from lobbying to persuade the Maryland legislature to reform Maryland’s “blue laws,” to avoiding the shoals of antitrust litigation in the food and grocery industry. He has been an active and successful trial lawyer since his service as U.S. Attorney for Maryland. His clients have included New Castle County, Delaware; Harford County, Maryland; Bausch & Lomb Corp.; Hoechst Celanese Corporation; Adolph Coors Corp.; DeSoto Chemical Company; CSXT Railroad; Embassy of Japan; Lencadia International Corporation; and Paice Corporation.
AREAS OF CONCENTRATION
Domestic and International CounselingMr. Tydings left the U.S. Senate and returned to the private practice of law in 1971. He has represented a wide array of clients with special legal and governmental problems. He represented the Barber Oil Company and the Alaska Interstate Company in their venture to build the Alpetco petro-chemical facility in Alaska. In this project, he represented the venture before the Alaska legislature, the Governor, and various interested tribal corporate entities, as well as U.S. government agencies and the U.S. Congress. He was the principal attorney involved in the reorganization of Capital Bank in Washington, DC, and in the organization of one bank and three federal savings and loan associations in Maryland. He represented the State of Maryland in controversies with the National Football League. Mr. Tydings also has represented several communications companies that acquired network television stations and radio properties. He was general counsel for the nonprofit corporation that ran the State of Louisiana’s family planning clinics, the largest such operation in the nation at the time.
In the international arena, Mr. Tydings has represented the Embassy of Japan in its negotiations with the U.S. Department of State involving the licensing of the Tokai Uranium reprocessing facility. In Japan, he has represented the Keidanren organization and the Japanese Atomic Industrial Forum in various issues arising from their relationships with the U.S. Government. He also has represented various U.S. endeavors seeking to organize business ventures and secure government approvals in Haiti, Venezuela, Antigua, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. He has organized parliamentary conferences for the United Nations Fund for Population Activities in Beijing, Tokyo, Sri Lanka, Brasilia, Mexico City, Bonn, and Washington, DC. He has assisted and represented U.S. clients in securing financing and investments in Japan.
In addition, Mr. Tydings has raised funds for the United Nations Fund for Population Activities from the governments of Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Oman, Italy, and the Netherlands.
Litigation
Mr. Tydings served as co-lead counsel for the plaintiffs in the successful Plywood Antitrust class action jury trial in New Orleans and the appeal before the Fifth Circuit, which ultimately resulted in a multimillion-dollar settlement. He was co-lead counsel in the successful litigation in the Eastern Sugar Antitrust case. He was co-lead counsel for the largest class in the successful litigation against the gypsum industry in San Francisco. He was involved as one of the plaintiff’s steering committee in several other major class action antitrust litigations in the 1970s and 1980s.
Since 1988, Mr. Tydings has been involved principally in litigation representing policyholders in major claims against insurance companies involving environmental, products liability, and directors and officers liability claims. In March 1996, he was lead counsel for plaintiffs in a libel and slander case before a jury in Pecos, Texas. He represented the largest ranch in Hudspeth County, Texas. He was successful in having the jury return a major libel and slander verdict against a major TV network program.
PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND
Mr. Tydings served in the Maryland legislature for seven years from 1955 to 1961. From 1961 to 1963, he was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland, appointed by President John F. Kennedy. He was a U.S. Senator from Maryland during the administrations of Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon from 1965 to 1971. After leaving the U.S. Senate, he became a name partner in Danzansky, Dickey, Tydings, Quint & Gordon. In 1988, he joined the Washington office of Anderson Kill Olick & Oshinsky. In 1996, he left that firm with Jerold Oshinsky to join the firm of Dickstein Shapiro and Morin which became the present-day Firm Dickstein Shapiro.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Mr. Tydings has been active in the civic, legal, and political communities of the State of Maryland for his entire professional career. He was a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Maryland from 1974 to 1984, and Chairman of the Board of Regents from 1982 to 1984. In 1999, he was appointed Regent of the University System of Maryland, which consists of 13 institutions of public higher education, including all of the University of Maryland. He has chaired numerous state commissions, the most recent being the Maryland Commission to Study Casino Gambling, which made its study and report in 1995, and the Governor’s Advisory Committee for Maryland’s Strategic Plan for Higher Education.
Mr. Tydings has served on the boards of the Charter Company, GAF Corporation, the First National Bank of Northeast Maryland, and Capital Bank of Washington, DC. From 1976 to 1980, he chaired President Jimmy Carter’s Judicial Selection Committee for U.S. District Judges and U.S. Circuit Judges for the District of Columbia. He was senior financial consultant for the United Nations Fund for Population Activities from 1971 to 1990. He serves as Co-Chairman of Population Action International in Washington, DC, and was one of the founding trustees of the United States-Japan Foundation. He has served on the board of directors of a number of Maryland and District of Columbia charitable and civic organizations, as well as schools and colleges, including the Baltimore YMCA and McDonogh School in Baltimore and Mount Vernon College in Washington, DC. He served on the Board of Visitors of the University of Maryland flagship campus at College Park from 1992 until March 1999, when he resigned to accept appointment as a Regent of the University System of Maryland.
HONORS & RECOGNITIONS
- Recipient of the American Lung Association of Maryland’s 2006 Jack Lodge Award in honor of his exceptional leadership in advocating for clean air that will protect the health and well-being of the citizens of Maryland
- Selected as a 2006 “Illustrious Alumnus” of the University of Maryland, Baltimore for his impact on both society and the legal profession, his status as a role model for others in the profession, and his demonstrated leadership on behalf of the University
- Awarded the John V. Kabler Memorial Award in 2006 by the Maryland League of Conservative Voters in recognition of his environmental accomplishments
PUBLICATIONS
- Author, “Don’t Penalize Your Taxpayers! Insurance May Cover Your Landfill Cleanup Costs,” Environmental Decisions (Dec. 1990)
- Author, “Insurance Company Required to Pay Landfill Cleanup Costs,” Public Risk (Mar.-Apr. 1990)
- Author, “Improving Archaic Judicial Machinery,” ABA Journal (Feb. 1971)
- Author, “D.C. Court Reform and Criminal Procedure Act of 1970: An Overview,” D.C. Bar Journal (Aug.-Dec. 1970)
- Author, “Fair Play for Consumers,” Trial (Mar. 1970)
- Author, “Air Crash Litigation: A Judicial Problem – A Congressional Solution,” American University Law Review (Mar. 1969)
- Author, “Court of the Future,” St. Louis University Law Journal (1969)
- Author, “A National Program for Reform in Judicial Administration,” Trial Judges Journal (Jan. 1967)
- Author, “Management Consultants Can Break Logjams in Nation’s Courts,” American Trial Lawyers (Mar. 1967)
- Author, “Modernizing the Administration of Justice,” Judicature (Apr. 1967)
- Author, “A Fresh Approach to Judicial Administration,” Journal of American Judicature Society (Aug.-Sept. 1966)
- Author, “Modernizing the Federal Judiciary,” Journal of Missouri Bar (Nov. 1966)
- Author, “Improving the Federal Judicial System,” American Criminal Law Quarterly (Winter 1966)
EDUCATION
Mr. Tydings received his B.A. from the University of Maryland (1951) and his LL.B. from the University of Maryland Law School (1953).
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