A Baltimore County judge on Thursday said he would sign an order allowing three people to sign checks for the Law Offices of Peter G. Angelos, preventing the firm’s bank accounts from being frozen pending another hearing in the litigation over the future of the business, family fortune and Baltimore Orioles.

Judge Keith R. Truffer said he believed the case was not in the right place for him to rule on a request to appoint a conservator to focus on the well-being of one of the most prominent law firms in Baltimore, which has more than 22,000 clients.

The Office of Bar Counsel, he said, would have to file a petition. Truffer noted there is another hearing scheduled on Nov. 9 to address other motions in the case.

“I am inclined to keep the status quo for the time being,” Truffer said. “To some degree, I’m punting a little bit.”

Peter Angelos is a billionaire who was one of the first attorneys in the United States to take on asbestos litigation. He represented the state of Maryland in a lawsuit against tobacco companies that led to a $4.4 billion settlement, and served as the lead investor in a group that bought the Orioles in 1993.

He collapsed from heart problems in 2017 and experiences advanced dementia, according to court documents. Wells Fargo had requested a new signatory and a point of contact for the bank accounts at the firm.

His younger son, Louis Angelos, filed a lawsuit in Baltimore County Circuit Court this past summer against his older brother, John Angelos, chairman and CEO of the Orioles, and their mother, Georgia Angelos, alleging they are pushing him out of the family fortune and the baseball team.

The lawsuit speculates that John Angelos might want to move the team but contains no allegations that he has taken steps to do so. He reiterated in a statement: “As long as Fort McHenry is standing watch over the Inner Harbor, the Orioles will remain in Baltimore.”

Later, Georgia Angelos sued Louis Angelos, accusing him of selling his father’s firm to himself for a price to be determined later in a move she claimed amounted to elder abuse.

During the hearing, Doug Gansler, one of Georgia Angelos’ attorneys who also served as Maryland attorney general from 1999-2007, said his client did not give her youngest son the authority to transfer the firm on June 8 to himself.

Instead, Peter Angelos wanted to wind down his firm while acting with care and concern toward its clients, Gansler said. Louis Angelos, he said, neither consulted with his mother about the transfer nor had a legal, ethical and moral right to make that move.

Gansler asked the judge to invalidate the transfer, appoint a conservator to make sure that everything is in order at the firm and order mandatory mediation in the litigation. He scoffed at the suggestion that the younger son filed his lawsuit as a defensive measure.

“He stole the company, he stole the firm, and the next day, he sued his mother,” said Gansler, whose language drew pushback from the judge. “It doesn’t get more offensive.”

But Jeffrey Nusinov, one of Louis Angelos’ attorneys, said his client moved ownership of the firm to himself to bring it into compliance with the rules in Maryland. That’s after his mother did not act for four years.

Because Peter Angelos was not able to practice law, he said, ownership of the firm needed to be transferred to an active, licensed member of the Maryland bar. Wells Fargo was well aware of the situation, Nusinov said.

“Lou has a valid transfer,” said Nusinov, who added that his client is the other attorney in the family and has worked at the firm for 20 years. “He is the owner.”

Louis Angelos sat in the courtroom behind his attorneys but did not speak during the court proceedings. Meanwhile, Georgia Angelos sat outside the courtroom and left when she did not have to testify in the hearing.

Lydia Lawless, bar counsel for the state of Maryland, could not immediately be reached.

Later, Truffer appointed independent counsel, Benjamin Rosenberg, to represent Peter Angelos. That’s in addition to granting a request to keep certain documents containing confidential financial, medical and client information private.

Truffer did not issue rulings on other matters, including disputes about discovery from the bench.

dylan.segelbaum@thebaltimorebanner.com