Ebony Thompson

46, City Solicitor, Baltimore City Law Department

Ebony Thompson is the first woman to serve as Baltimore’s top attorney. She’s also the first blockchain-specializing, karate-kicking, Marine veteran daughter of Baltimore to occupy the office.

Charged with finding solutions for Baltimore’s vacant housing crisis after joining the city in January 2022, Thompson, who studied blockchain technology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spearheaded a project to log vacancies with the tool. A former litigator, she’s overseen the office as it changes posture from defendant to plaintiff. Baltimore has sued the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and ghost gun manufacturers under Thompson’s watch. The city’s lawsuit against opioid manufacturers heads to trial this fall.

A Baltimore City College graduate who once played women’s tackle football but now settles for karate, Thompson brings a charm to the job uncharacteristic of municipal attorneys. Exhibit A: The candy she deposits on the desks of her fellow Board of Estimates members. In the stately Baltimore City Hall, her boisterous laugh can be heard before she enters a room.

Mayor Brandon Scott, who selected Thompson, said her tenure will be historic not just because she is a woman, but because of her “passion, heart and tenacity.”

“She’s breaking glass ceilings for young girls from Baltimore and setting an example for every single young person in our city,” he said.

— Emily Opilo