Maryland Litigator Mark S. Saudek Receives 2026 DiRito Award
Mark S. Saudek, Partner at Gallagher LLP, FBA Maryland Chapter National Delegate & 2026 Peter A. DiRito Award Recipient
The Federal Bar Association Maryland Chapter has honored longtime member Mark S. Saudek with the 2026 Peter A. DiRito Award, the chapter's highest recognition for public service that strengthens the federal legal profession. Stuart A. Berman, who chairs the chapter's DiRito Committee, presented the award to Saudek at the 2026 FBA Maryland Annual Luncheon, the same event that paid tribute to the late Judge Catherine C. Blake. The connection between the two honors runs deeper than shared timing. From 1995 to 1996, Saudek served as law clerk to Judge Blake after earning his JD with honors from the University of Maryland School of Law. This experience shaped his decades of service to the Maryland federal bench and bar.
Established in 1987, the DiRito Award recognizes attorneys whose contributions advance justice and benefit the broader community, not simply their own careers. Mark Saudek's selection reflects a career built on exactly that standard. A partner at Gallagher LLP and a go-to first chair litigator, Saudek pairs a demanding commercial litigation practice with extensive pro bono work, federal court committees, and the chapter's own leadership ranks.
This article examines Saudek's path to the law, his current practice, his record of leadership within the court and the FBA, and the mentorship program he helped build to bring the next generation into the courtroom.
What Is the Peter A. DiRito Award?
The Federal Bar Association Maryland Chapter has presented the Peter A. DiRito Award annually since 1987. The chapter created the award to recognize public service that enhances the federal legal profession, advances justice, and betters society at large. It is named for Peter DiRito, a longtime member of the chapter's Board of Governors who also served as Board president.
Unlike many legal awards that recognize courtroom victories or billable achievements, the DiRito Award centers on service beyond a lawyer's own practice. Past recipients have distinguished themselves through work with the courts, mentorship of younger attorneys, and volunteer contributions to the broader Maryland legal community. Chapter leadership and members nominate candidates whose careers demonstrate this sustained commitment.
Mark Saudek's nomination came from a wide range of supporters, including members of the bench who have observed his contributions firsthand. Presenting the award, DiRito Committee chair Stuart A. Berman noted that Saudek's service spans the courtroom, the chapter's committees, and programs designed to introduce the public to the federal court system. The chapter recognized Saudek during its 2026 Annual Luncheon, an event that also honored the legacy of Judge Catherine C. Blake, for whom Saudek clerked early in his career, giving the presentation particular resonance.
Mark Saudek’s Path From the Classroom to the Courtroom
Mark Saudek's path to the federal bar did not begin in law school. He earned his BA with honors from Wesleyan University, then taught high school English and economics and coached soccer, wrestling, and lacrosse before pursuing a legal career. Those years in the classroom and on the field gave him early experience building relationships and communicating complex ideas clearly, skills that would later define his legal career.
Saudek went on to earn his JD with honors from the University of Maryland School of Law in 1995. From 1995 to 1996, he served as law clerk to the Honorable Catherine C. Blake of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. This experience placed him inside the federal court system early in his professional life. It connected him to the judge the chapter honored at the same 2026 luncheon where he received the DiRito Award.
The combination of a teaching background and a federal clerkship gave Saudek a distinct foundation. He carried lessons from the classroom into his legal career, particularly his later work mentoring students through court-based programs. His path illustrates how varied professional backgrounds can inform a career in federal practice, and it foreshadows the mentorship work that would become a hallmark of his later contributions to the Maryland legal community.
A Distinguished Litigation Practice at Gallagher LLP
As a partner at Gallagher LLP, Mark Saudek is a go-to first-chair litigator handling complex commercial and general civil litigation in federal courts, administrative tribunals, and state courts across Maryland, the District of Columbia, and beyond. His practice spans commercial contract disputes, business torts, noncompetition and trade secret matters, intellectual property, and estate, trust, and fiduciary disputes. He also litigates and counsels clients on employment matters, including defending class actions and FLSA collective actions, and has significant experience conducting internal investigations and representing court-appointed monitors and receivers in matters involving hundreds of millions of dollars. He is a Certified Electronic Discovery Specialist.
Saudek's practice has earned broad recognition, including a 2015 Leadership in Law award from The Daily Record; repeated recognition by Best Lawyers in America and Super Lawyers for commercial and labor and employment litigation; and a 2026 Baltimore Magazine Top Lawyer honor for commercial litigation. He has also shared his expertise as a speaker, presenting on trade secrets law at the Maryland State Bar Association's Legal Summit in June 2025. Alongside this practice, he devotes substantial time to pro bono work, handling civil rights and constitutional law cases involving the First, Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments, reflecting the same public service values the DiRito Award was created to recognize.
Decades of Leadership Within the Court and the Federal Bar Association
Mark Saudek's service to the Maryland federal bar extends well beyond his law practice. He serves on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland's Bench-Bar Liaison Committee. He chairs its Pro Bono Lawyers Appointment Committee, overseeing the process that connects volunteer attorneys with clients in need of representation. He is also a Permanent Member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference.
Within the Federal Bar Association, Saudek has served as President of the Maryland Chapter and was selected a Fellow of the Foundation of the Federal Bar Association, one of only 12 Fellows from Maryland, in recognition of his sustained leadership within the organization. He has also contributed directly to the chapter's publications, authoring a December 2010 article on amendments to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 26 and 56 for the FBA Maryland Chapter.
Members who supported Saudek's nomination pointed to this sustained leadership, spanning the federal bench, the FBA, and the chapter's own presidency, as a defining feature of his career. Few attorneys maintain an active commercial litigation practice while also carrying this level of institutional responsibility across the court, the chapter, and the national organization over the course of decades. That record, built steadily over many years rather than in a single high-profile moment, is precisely the kind of contribution the DiRito Award was created to honor.
Mentoring Maryland's Future Jurors Through Open Doors to the Federal Court
Among Mark Saudek's most enduring contributions to the Maryland legal community is his role as co-chair of the Open Doors to the Federal Court moot court program, which introduces nearly 100 Baltimore City public high school students each year to realistic legal scenarios, with host judges and volunteer attorneys guiding them through the experience of serving as jurors.
Saudek once wrote about the program's impact, describing how students from widely different backgrounds arrive with their own preconceptions, then come to recognize and set aside many of those assumptions over the course of the day. He noted that placing students in a neutral environment, where no single participant controls the process, makes the power of jury service real to them in a way that classroom instruction alone cannot achieve. One teacher who observed the program said that after sitting on a jury, students gained a genuine understanding of both the responsibility involved and the power of democracy, along with a sense that their voice can be heard.
That lesson carries as much weight today as it did when Saudek first wrote about it. The Open Doors program reflects the same values that run through the rest of his career: a belief that access to the justice system and understanding of how it works should extend well beyond practicing attorneys and into the broader community, starting with its youngest members.
Congratulating Mark S. Saudek on the Peter A. DiRito Award
Mark Saudek's career reflects the standard the Peter A. DiRito Award was created to recognize. From his early years teaching high school and coaching student-athletes, through a law degree and a clerkship with the late Judge Catherine Blake, to his current practice as a go-to first-chair litigator at Gallagher LLP, Saudek has built a career defined by range, rigor, and a consistent commitment to public service. His service on the Bench-Bar Liaison Committee, his chairmanship of the Pro Bono Lawyers Appointment Committee, and his tenure as President of the FBA Maryland Chapter demonstrate a depth of institutional engagement few attorneys sustain over a career.
Perhaps most notably, Saudek's leadership of the Open Doors to the Federal Court program has introduced generations of Baltimore City students to the federal justice system, giving them a firsthand understanding of jury service and the workings of American democracy. That commitment to public understanding of the courts, paired with his decades of service to the bench and bar, made him a natural choice for this year's DiRito Award.
The Federal Bar Association Maryland Chapter congratulates Mark Saudek on this well-deserved recognition. His presentation at the 2026 FBA Maryland Annual Luncheon, alongside the chapter's tribute to Judge Catherine C. Blake, reflected a career that began with her mentorship and has shaped Maryland's federal legal community for decades since.
