Alumni Board

Steven Adler ‘07

Administrative Commissioner, District Court of Maryland

Commissioner Steven V. Adler was appointed to the District Court of Maryland at the age of 22, making him one of the youngest judicial officers in state history. Since then, he has reviewed warrantless arrests made by law enforcement for probable cause, issued charging documents and warrants of arrest, and granted civil peace and protective orders. Commissioner Adler has presided over the initial appearance of, and determined conditions of pre-trial release for, more than ten thousand defendants. As a commissioner, he has sought always to fairly balance the equities, knowing that even the smallest of his decisions can have the largest of consequences.

In the summer of 2009, the Chief Judge of the District Court elevated Commissioner Adler to the office of Administrative Commissioner and chief of all commissioner operations for the 10th Judicial District including the supervision of 15 judicial officers sitting 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in four locations in two counties.

Before his appointment, Commissioner Adler was actively involved in research, qualitative and quantitative data analysis, and writing, both with the Maryland Sentencing Commission and the Bureau of Governmental Research at the University of Maryland. Working as a special assistant to the Director of Student Conduct at the University of Maryland, he authored some twenty appellate briefs and memoranda of law in student judicial proceedings.

A 2007 graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, he served as managing editor and, later, as editor-in-chief of The Authority, a national housing law publication of the School of Law and the Housing Development Law Institute. Commissioner Adler was also a peer advisor, parliamentarian of the Student Bar Association, president of the fourth year evening division class, and a member of the Honor Board.

Commissioner Adler earned his undergraduate degree in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2003. During this time, he was a charter member of both the CIVICUS and Beyond the Classroom Living and Learning Programs, and a presiding officer of the Student Honor Council and the Central Judicial Board. He was the only student to have been twice honored by the University Student Judiciary as its outstanding member.

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