About NAAG
Douglas F. Gansler (D)
Maryland Attorney General
Elected: 2006, 2010
200 St. Paul Place, Baltimore, MD 21202-2202
(410) 576-6300
http://www.oag.state.md.us
Douglas F. Gansler was elected on November 7, 2006, as Maryland’s 44th Attorney General. In that election, Mr. Gansler received the most votes of any candidate in the State of Maryland. Since that election, Mr. Gansler has been elected as the national Co-Chair for the Democratic Attorneys General Association. He has also been appointed to the Executive Committee of the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG), the national Co-Chair of NAAG’s Environmental Committee, the national Co-Chair of NAAG’s Youth Access to Alcohol Committee, and the Vice-President of NAAG’s Eastern Region.
As Attorney General, Mr. Gansler has focused on environmental, public safety, and consumer issues. In terms of the environment, Mr. Gansler participated in reaching the largest air pollution settlement in the history of the United States, a $4.6 billion settlement with an Ohio River Valley company, American Electric Power. He also spearheaded the largest water pollution case in the history of Maryland, which included a $1 million settlement with Constellation Energy over fly-ash contamination. In September 2008, Mr. Gansler reached a settlement with ExxonMobil which included a $4 million civil penalty, the largest ever levied for an oil spill in Maryland. Along with other significant enforcement victories against polluters, Mr. Gansler led the successful charge to have phosphates permanently banned from dishwasher detergent, increased automobile emission standards, and laid the groundwork for the construction of a power plant to convert 500 million pounds of chicken manure into energy.
In public safety, Mr. Gansler established the first Attorney General Gang Prosecution Unit, created a statewide internet safety initiative focused on school-aged children, and joined other attorneys general in targeting sexual predators on social networking websites. He also co-chairs the statewide Human Trafficking Task Force.
Mr. Gansler has protected Marylanders from fraud and deception, helped to ensure the honesty and integrity of the marketplace, and provided millions of dollars in monetary relief to Maryland consumers who were victims of illegal practices. For example, Mr. Gansler provided more than $3 million in restitution to thousands of Marylanders through his landmark settlement with BlueHippo, a company that victimized lower income computer purchasers nationwide, and fundamentally changed the company’s marketing practices; shut down Metropolitan Dream Homes, an investment scam bilking millions of dollars by packaging itself as a mortgage program; reached a $41 million settlement with Caremark that changed the nation’s largest pharmaceutical benefit manager’s drug switching practices to ensure that they were cost effective for patients and plans and preserved patient safety; and entered into consent decrees with drug companies engaged in unfair and deceptive practices.
On a national level, Mr. Gansler reached an agreement with all the major car rental companies to end usurious rates for refueling partially empty gas tanks, and a settlement with all four major wireless carriers requiring disclosure of terms involving cell phone insurance, potentially saving Marylanders over $40 million and Americans over $2.4 billion. Mr. Gansler initiated the successful effort that led movie studios to include smoking as a ratings factor.
In the Civil Rights arena, Mr. Gansler, who created the first Attorney General Civil Rights Division, received the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Dream Keeper’s Award. He received the Ally for Equality Award for being the first statewide elected official in Maryland to support marriage equality. Mr. Gansler created the Working Group on Lending Practices to reform sub-prime and predatory lending practices, and appointed the Attorney General Voting Irregularities Task Force to address voter suppression issues.
Prior to becoming Attorney General, Mr. Gansler served as State’s Attorney for Montgomery County, the largest jurisdiction in Maryland. While he is most widely known for leading the Joint Sniper Task Force and successfully prosecuting John Mohammed and Lee Boyd Malvo for the six murders they committed in Maryland, as well as his prosecution of boxer Mike Tyson, Mr. Gansler personally tried many other cases. These include Garrett Wilson, who murdered two of his babies for life insurance proceeds; Robert Lucas, who murdered Monsignor Thomas Wells; and Terrance Green, who shot and paralyzed police officer Kyle Olinger. While Mr. Gansler was State’s Attorney, his office was the first in the nation to fully implement Community Prosecution, becoming a national model for effective and innovative crime fighting. He also established the first domestic violence dockets, gang unit, internet crime unit, and Elder Abuse Task Force in Maryland. Mr. Gansler was elected twice by his peers as vice-president of the Maryland States Attorneys’ Association, received the Champion of Children Award from the Victim’s Rights Foundation, and the Hero Award from Mothers Against Drunk Driving. In 2002, the citizens resoundingly supported Mr. Gansler’s innovative and effective approach to prosecution by re-electing him with the highest number of votes for any state candidate in any jurisdiction in the history of Maryland.
Before becoming State’s Attorney, Mr. Gansler served as Assistant United States Attorney, where he personally prosecuted over 1,000 cases involving almost every conceivable type of crime, including public corruption, hate crimes, narcotic trafficking, sex offenses, child abuse, economic crimes, gang-related violence, and homicides. As a federal prosecutor, Mr. Gansler’s most notable case was the successful prosecution of a drunk-driving diplomat who killed a 16-year-old Maryland girl near Dupont Circle, in Washington, D.C.
In addition to his prosecutorial experience, Mr. Gansler practiced civil litigation with the law firms of Coburn & Schertler and Howrey & Simon. Mr. Gansler began his legal career as a law clerk for the Honorable John F. McAuliffe, Judge on the Maryland Court of Appeals.
Mr. Gansler serves as Honorary Chair of the Lawyers Campaign Against Hunger, the Board of Directors of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, the Jewish Foundation for Group Homes, Most Valuable Kids, and the Washington Regional Alcohol Program. He has also served as Chair of the Montgomery County NAACP Criminal Justice Committee, the CollegeBound Foundation, and was a member of the Montgomery County Commission on Aging. Mr. Gansler also mentors at-risk youth.
Mr. Gansler received his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. He graduated cum laude from Yale University, where he was a four-year starter on the Varsity lacrosse team and earned all-New England and all-Ivy honors. He continues to play lacrosse, coaches both of his sons’s lacrosse teams, and still holds his high school’s all-time lacrosse scoring record.
Since his high school days, when he interned for Senator Birch Bayh (D-IN) and Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ), Mr. Gansler has been involved in Democratic politics. During college, Mr. Gansler co-chaired the 1984 presidential campaign for Gary Hart at Yale. In 1992, Mr. Gansler served as the Montgomery County Field Director for Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD). In 2008, Mr. Gansler served as the Maryland Co-Chair for the presidential campaign of Senator Barack Obama (D-IL).
Mr. Gansler’s wife, Laura Leedy Gansler, is a securities lawyer and noted author. Laura co-authored Class Action, the book that became the two-time Academy Award- nominated movie North Country, and wrote The Mysterious Private Thompson, which was nominated for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She also co-authored a book on shareholder derivative litigation. The Ganslers have two sons, Sam, 14, and Will, 11. Mr. Gansler’s father, Jacques Gansler, teaches at the University of Maryland and served as Under Secretary at the United States Department of Defense. His mother, Alison Gansler, is a public school teacher.
