Jason A. Shapiro was born August 28, 1961 in Washington, DC. He has lived his entire life in the State of Maryland, living his first 23 years in Montgomery County in the cities of Takoma Park and Silver Spring. A sports enthusiast, he played football, basketball and participated in AAU boxing competitions throughout his youth. While attending Springbrook High School in Silver Spring, Maryland, Mr. Shapiro won a mentorship program for one semester being selected to work in the Montgomery County State’s Attorney Office during his senior year of high school. It was during that year that Mr. Shapiro fell in love with the idea of being a trial attorney, as he learned and studied under some of the greatest trial attorneys in that area. In 1979, he graduated high school and attended the University of Maryland with the hopes of earning a spot on the USA boxing team. It was while Mr. Shapiro attended the University of Maryland, majoring in government and minoring in criminal justice, that Mr. Shapiro realized that he needed to take his fight out of the boxing ring and into the courtroom. While making this transition, Mr. Shapiro was honored by being asked to and consenting to serve as a student judge for the University of Maryland Judiciary Board handling parking and traffic cases.
Upon Mr. Shapiro’s graduation from the University of Maryland in 1983, he enrolled in the University of Baltimore School of Law. After Mr. Shapiro completed his first year of law school, he married his wife Carol, and switched to the evening division of the law school so that he could obtain full time employment during the day. Mr. Shapiro was initially retained as a law clerk in a large civil litigating firm. Mr. Shapiro wrote briefs and memoranda to a number of Maryland courts including, but not limited to, the Maryland Court of Appeals and the Maryland Court of Special Appeals. One of the briefs which Mr. Shapiro drafted was in a worker’s compensation case where by the high courts of the State of Maryland recognized that job related carpel tunnel was a compensable occupational disease.
After spending a year and a half in that law clerk position, Mr. Shapiro took the position of Juvenile Justice Director for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office. In that position, Mr. Shapiro took the stewardship of Operation Last Chance which won a National Association of Counties Best Community Based Program. This award was due to the fact that the program was proven effective in reducing the recidivisms rate of youthful offenders.
After graduating from law school in 1987 and being admitted to the bar later that year, Mr. Shapiro began his employment as an Assistant State’s Attorney in Howard County. There, Mr. Shapiro prosecuted any and all criminal cases, from disorderly conduct to death cases from agricultural misdemeanor to complex white collar felonies. After serving nearly four years in the Howard County States Attorney’s Office, Mr. Shapiro resigned his position and took a position in a Laurel Maryland criminal defense and personal injury law firm. After serving in that capacity for three years, Mr. Shapiro started his own firm first setting out as a sole practitioner and then adding a friend from the State’s Attorney’s Office, and forming a partnership. Since that time, that friend, a former partner, has been appointed to the bench of the Circuit Court for Howard County Sitting as a Juvenile Court. Then Mr. Shapiro merged his practice with the law firm of Hodes, Ulman, Pessin and Katz, P.A. where Mr. Shapiro assumed the role of Chief of the Criminal Defense Division. It was at that law firm that Mr. Shapiro began working with his partner Paul E. Mack.
Recognizing a need for a boutique litigation firm concentrating in the area of criminal defense, DUI/DWI defense, traffic cases, juvenile delinquency cases and any personal injury matter, Mr. Shapiro and Mr. Mack formed the Law office of Shapiro and Mack in January, 2005. Although Mr. Shapiro is very well known throughout Howard County, he has successfully defended cases in almost every jurisdiction in the State of Maryland as well as in the Maryland Courts of Appeals. He is recognized by his peers as providing the highest level of representation and professional standards of conduct and ethics. He continues to handle a full range of criminal cases including an extensive number of DUI/DWI and other serious traffic cases any criminal matter, including drug and narcotics cases, assaults, thefts, hand gun charges, sexual offenses and any other criminal matter. Furthermore, Mr. Shapiro has relied upon his strong background in the area of the Juvenile Court to successfully represent juveniles at informal intake hearings with the Department of Juvenile Services, as well as in contested matters in Juvenile Court. Additionally, Mr. Shapiro has successfully handled nearly one thousand Motor Vehicle Administrative Hearings arising out of drunk driving cases or when multiple points have been assessed against one’s driving record.
Most recently, Mr. Shapiro has received three impressive honors recognizing his contributions to the practice of law. First, Maryland’s Governor, the honorable Martin O’Malley, appointed Mr. Shapiro as chairman of the Trial Courts Nominating Commission. Second, “LexisNexis/Martindale-Hubbell/Lawyers.com” has acknowledged Mr. Shapiro for a Peer Review Rated Award for High Ethical Standards and Legal Ability. Finally, Mr. Shapiro was named one of the “Best Lawyers in America” by his peers.
