M. Elizabeth Nowinski

M. Elizabeth (“Betsy”) Nowinski focuses her practice on litigating real property disputes in Maryland courts, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, and in the United States Bankruptcy Courts for the Districts of Maryland and the District of Columbia. Her broad range of civil litigation experience includes general commercial litigation on behalf of financial institutions and other businesses, the representation of insurance carriers in connection with coverage disputes, and the defense of serious personal injury and auto tort cases.  Ms. Nowinski routinely drafts and argues dispositive motions on behalf of her clients, and has argued before Maryland’s appellate courts on multiple occasions. Ms. Nowinski’s successful argument before the Court of Appeals of Maryland resulted in the reported opinion Guttman v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 421 Md. 227, 26 A.2d 856 (2011), which establishes that the absence of an affidavit of consideration from a deed of trust is cured, pursuant to Md. Code Ann., Real Prop. §4-109, if the defect is not judicially challenged within six (6) months of recording. The case was of major importance to mortgage lenders in the State of Maryland, as an adverse ruling would have invalidated a significant number of existing mortgage liens.

• Litigation

• University of Baltimore Law School (J.D., 2000), Staff Member, University of Baltimore Law Review; August, 1998 - May, 2000
• University of California, Davis (B.A. in History with English minor, 1996)

• Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2000
• United States District Court for the District of Maryland, 2004
• District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 2008
• United States District Court for the District of Columbia, 2009
• Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 2011
• United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, 2011

• Law Clerk, The Honorable M. Brooke Murdock, Circuit Court for Baltimore City