BALTIMORE — Maryland’s highest court ruled Friday that former Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby’s law license will not be suspended while appeals in her two federal convictions are pending.

In a two-page order published Friday, the Supreme Court of Maryland ruled against the Maryland Attorney Grievance Commission’s bar counsel, who sought to immediately suspend Mosby’s law license in February. Bar counsel Thomas D. DeGonia did not respond immediately to a request for comment late Friday.

Mosby was sentenced in May to one year of home detention for convictions on perjury and mortgage fraud. She and her attorney also did not respond immediately to a request for comment late Friday.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Steven B. Gould wrote that allowing Mosby to maintain an active license would undermine public perception of the justice system.

“Ms. Mosby was convicted by two juries of her peers of separate crimes that speak directly to her character,” Gould wrote. “Although I may be persuaded otherwise if this matter comes back to us on a full record, for now, based on the findings of both juries, I am constrained to conclude Ms. Mosby presents an unacceptable risk of harm to the public if permitted to practice law in Maryland.”

Justice Jonathan Biran joined the dissent.

Under Maryland’s rules for attorneys, it is considered “professional misconduct” for an attorney to “commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the attorney’s honesty, trustworthiness or fitness as an attorney in other respects.”

The Attorney Grievance Commission’s bar counsel is supposed to notify the Supreme Court of Maryland when they learn that a lawyer has been convicted of a crime, regardless of whether there is a pending appeal, asking for that lawyer to be immediately suspended from practicing law.

Andrew I. Alperstein, a defense attorney and former prosecutor, said the court’s order was not necessarily surprising, given that Mosby was not accused of dishonesty in her dealings with clients.

“If she were a practicing lawyer and there was honesty required to clients, one would think the court would need to be more aggressive with the licensure issues,” Alperstein said.

Mosby’s criminal convictions are not final until the appellate process has been exhausted.

“The court seemingly balances the need to protect the community from alleged dishonest lawyers against her right to let the process lay its course,” Alperstein said.

Still, Alperstein said Mosby will likely face disbarment if her perjury and fraud convictions are upheld.

“The charges that she was convicted of are honesty related and that generally is a problem for lawyers to keep their licenses,” he said.

In a recent case involving a different prominent Baltimore attorney convicted in federal court, the Supreme Court of Maryland did grant the bar counsel’s request to suspend a law license.

Shortly after the 2022 sentencing of Kenneth Ravenell, a Baltimore attorney convicted of money laundering, the court ordered the suspension of his license while he pursued appeals.

In April, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to heart Ravenell’s appeal of a jury’s 2021 verdict finding him guilty of laundering a client’s drug proceeds. A federal judge ordered him to report to prison by July 8.

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