First Appointed Black Circuit Court Judge

      First Black Deputy Attorney General

   In 1995 Hon. Donna Hill Staton at age 37

   was appointed by Governor, Parris Glendening

   as the first African American Howard County

   Circuit Court Judge. 

   Despite possessing impeccable academic and

   professional credentials and being the first

   African American female attorney partner at

   Piper & Marbury, the state’s largest law firm,

   Staton was unseated in the 1996 general election

   in a politically, emotionally and racially charged

   election that left the community race – sensitive

   for several years.

   Judge Hill-Staton later became the first African

   American female Deputy Attorney General for the

   State of Maryland.

   Judge Hill-Staton is a graduate of George

   Washington University Law School , Princeton

   University, and a Wilde Lake High School

   graduate.