The Revolving Door Spins Again: Judge Harry Storm Retires Into the Same Broken System He Helped Create

When Judge Harry C. Storm announced his retirement from the Montgomery County Circuit Court in early 2025, there was little surprise about his next move. Like many before him, Storm slipped seamlessly into the world of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) — a world that looks suspiciously like the same non-constitutional, rule-driven labyrinth he presided over for years.

Instead of truly leaving behind the court system, Storm simply traded his black robe for a private mediator’s chair, joining The McCammon Group, a high-profile provider of ADR services. It is a career move as old as judicial decay itself: first, enforce a “justice” system based on procedural technicalities rather than constitutional rights, and then profit from the same broken system once retired.

The Court That Was Never About Justice

During his time on the bench, Storm was part of a court that rarely, if ever, lived up to the promise of constitutional justice. Instead of protecting due process, the courts under his watch largely functioned as administrative tribunals — obsessed with “rules of procedure” and “local practices” rather than constitutional law.

Real evidence? Due process? Upholding fundamental rights? These were optional in Storm’s courtroom, secondary to the unwritten goal of pushing cases through a bureaucratic machine designed to exhaust litigants into submission or settlement.

Those who dared to expect a real trial, a fair hearing, or any meaningful application of constitutional law quickly learned the truth: they weren’t standing in a true court of law — they were trapped in a system built to prioritize efficiency, settlement, and judicial convenience over actual justice.

Who knows how many families he ruined and children who lost a parent because he failed to follow due process, follow the evidence, and truly act to protect the best interests of the children whose cases he presided over.

The ADR Machine — An Extension, Not a Solution

Now, in joining the ADR industry, Storm continues the legacy of the system he spent years maintaining. ADR is often sold to the public as a faster, more humane alternative to court, but in practice, it is just another layer of privatized control. It is a place where the same games are played without even the thin veneer of constitutional oversight.

In Maryland, ADR has been increasingly intertwined with the court system itself. Judges nudge litigants — or outright order them — into mediation and arbitration, where constitutional protections are even more diluted. ADR providers like The McCammon Group profit handsomely from the confusion, the desperation, and the lack of options facing litigants who have already been stripped of their rights in traditional courtrooms.

Storm isn’t stepping away from the machine. He’s embedding deeper into it, helping to keep alive a system that grinds ordinary people into dust while offering the illusion of “resolution.”

Feeding the Same Broken System

Judge Storm may have retired, but make no mistake: he is still feeding the same system that prioritizes process over principle, compromise over truth, and profit over justice. His move into ADR is not a fresh start; it is a logical continuation of a career that was never about real justice in the first place.

The public deserves better than judges who treat constitutional rights as technicalities and retire into lucrative gigs that depend on the same culture of proceduralism and settlement coercion.

Until we confront the deep rot that has turned our courts into administrative mills and our judges into career ADR professionals, nothing will change. Harry Storm’s “retirement” is not a step forward — it’s just another symptom of a system long past its breaking point.