Peter George Angelos (born July 4, 1929) is an American trial lawyer and baseball executive from Baltimore, Maryland. Angelos is the majority owner of the Baltimore Orioles, a team in the American League of Major League Baseball.
Early life and education
Angelos is the son of John (a bar owner) and Frances Angelos, who immigrated to the United States from Menetes, Karpathos, Greece. Peter Angelos married Georgia Kousouris in 1966, and they had two children together, John and Louis. Angelos' family settled in the working-class neighborhood of Highlandtown and lived in a row house. Angelos' father, who mostly spoke Greek at home, owned a local tavern.
After graduating from Patterson Park High School, Angelos attended the University of Baltimore, where he earned a bachelor's degree. He then attended law school at night at the University of Baltimore School of Law and was named class valedictorian.
Career
Law practice
Angelos passed the bar in 1961 and opened an office specializing in handling product-liability cases for employees, almost always on a contingency basis. In one of his cases, he represented some 8,700 steelworkers, shipyard workers, and manufacturers' employees in a consolidated-action asbestos poisoning suit that was partially settled in 1992. Angelos' take from that litigation alone has been estimated at $330 million. He served a brief stint on the Baltimore City Council and ran for mayor on the city's first interracial ticket in 1967, and lost.
In March 1996 Maryland hired Angelos to represent the state in its suit against tobacco companies with a 25% contingency fee. After Angelos filed suit on behalf of the state the trial court ruled that the state's recovery would be limited to subrogation of losses through programs such as Medicaid; this would have effectively ended the state's case. Angelos successfully lobbied the state legislature to change the law to allow the state's suit to proceed. The state legislature also cut Angelos' fee to 12.5%. Eventually he settled for $150 million paid over five years.
Angelos also represented the state of Maryland in a suit against Philip Morris and suing Wyeth, the makers of part of the diet pill combination fen-phen. As of 2019, Angelos’ law firm had offices in Baltimore, Towson, and Cumberland, Maryland; Philadelphia, Bethlehem, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; and Knoxville, Tennessee. The firm is headquartered in the historic One Charles Center building in downtown Baltimore which was purchased by Angelos for $6 million in 1996.
Politics
A lifelong Democrat, Angelos began his political career with an unsuccessful run for State Senate in 1958. He went on to hold a seat on the Baltimore City Council from 1959 to 1963. He was the first Greek-American to be elected to the council. Though Angelos became known for demanding governmental oversight and fiscal responsibility, few of his calls for investigations into city agencies and spending led to lasting change. In 1963 he ran unsuccessfully for City Council President, losing to Thomas D'Alesandro III, scion and namesake of a popular former Mayor of Baltimore. He lost the primary for the 1967 Baltimore Mayor's race (on the city's first racially integrated ticket, as Clarence Mitchell III was running for City Council President)—again to D'Alesandro, who received nearly 75% of the vote and went on to beat Republican Arthur W. Sherwood in the general election. Three times in the 1960s he unsuccessfully challenged Republican incumbents in the Maryland Legislature. He has also used his influence with the small business community to call for the continuation of Maryland's Contributory negligence laws while most of the United States has adopted the more equitable distributary negligence system.
Angelos donated $272,000 to the independent expenditure-only committee (Super PAC) Draft Biden which sought to induce Vice President Joe Biden to enter the 2016 Democratic Primary for President.
Horse racing
Angelos breeds and races Thoroughbred horses and in 1998 purchased the Ross Valley Farm in Baltimore County.
Baltimore Orioles
In 1993 Angelos assembled a group of investors to purchase the Orioles from New York venture capitalist Eli Jacobs. While Angelos was the principal investor, contributing $40 million, his fellow Oriole group owners included novelist Tom Clancy, filmmaker Barry Levinson, and tennis player Pam Shriver. On October 4, 1993, Jacobs sold the Orioles to Angelos' group for $173 million, the highest price paid for a sports franchise at that time. Angelos took over as managing partner and principal owner of the team. His official titles with the club are chairman of the board and chief executive officer.