William L. Marbury Jr.

[7] He is a distant relative of William Marbury (1762–1835), 18th century American businessman and one of the "Midnight Judges" appointed by U.S. President John Adams the day before he left office.

[3] (The firm had many prominent 20th-century lawyers, including: Carol T. Bond, R. Dorsey Watkins, Robert B. Watts Sr., and Milton B. Allen, Joseph G. Finnerty Jr.[5]) In 1957, he became general counsel of the Maryland Port Authority and remained so until 1967.

[citation needed] In 1964, Marbury was among "fifty of the country's most prominent lawyers" who joined a public statement that rebuked U.S.

[5] In 1940, Marbury served under Judge Robert P. Patterson for a year as expert consultant on procurement to U.S. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson.

In 1942, he served three years as chief legal advisor on procurements for the U.S. Army Air Corps at the U.S. Department of War).

In September 1945, Marbury left wartime government service to resume private law practice in Baltimore.

[1][9][5][19] In 1948, he served as a U.S. delegate to the second session of signatories of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in Geneva, Switzerland.

[19] Marbury was involved in the Hiss case in its hearings, trials, and aftermath for the rest of his life, with a detailed legal essay coming out in 1981 and a memoir around his death in 1988.

[19] In the "three-ring circus"[20] of HUAC hearings in Washington, libel lawsuit in Baltimore, and Grand Jury investigation in New York during 1948, Marbury led the Hiss defense team in the libel suit against William D. Macmillan Sr. of Semmes, Bowen & Semmes, who defended Chambers.

As Marbury summarized the situation: It seemed to me inevitable that if he [Hiss] failed to sue Chambers, his reputation would be so irretrievably destroyed that the Endowment would have to dispense with his services anyhow....

I warned both Alger and Priscilla that if there were any skeletons in the closet of either one of them, they would certainly be discovered if suit were filed, and they both assured me there was no cause for worry on that count....

During pre-trial proceedings, he recalled, "I made demand on him to produce anything whatsoever which he had in his possession in the way of written evidence which would substantiate his story, and particularly any communications from Alger or Priscilla Hiss."

Instead, after days of intense grand jury hearings, the Department of Justice indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury on December 15, 1948.

After reviewing his HUAC testimony, he noted: There was no doubt that in his appearances before the Committee in my absence Alger had handled himself very badly.

He had written a letter to the Chairman which reeked with hurt pride and indignation, and had grudgingly admitted association with Chambers under the name of George Crosley, but only after examining his teeth and asking him to read aloud some passages from a document.

[citation needed] He also served as a member of: In 1952, the Harvard Crimson noted that Whittaker Chambers had written in the Saturday Evening Post (which was serializing his memoir, Witness) that "Marbury, a prominent Baltimore lawyer, supported Hiss because the charges against Hiss represented an attack against 'the island of caste'.

"[29] Shortly after his death 1988, the Maryland Legal Services Corporation named a "William L. Marbury Outstanding Advocate Award.