When Howard County's school board met in closed session to talk about extending school Superintendent John R. O'Rourke's contract last month , County Councilman-elect and lawyer Ken Ulman was among the meeting's harshest public critics.

"I find this matter to be quite troubling and just think these actions clearly violated the intent of the law, which is to be an open process," Ulman told The Sun last month .

But Ulman's comments resonated in an unexpected way because his firm, Hodes, Ulman, Pessin & Katz, is defending the school board in court against a citizen's open-meetings lawsuit. As a result, the 28-year old west Columbia Democrat has resigned from the firm, where his father, Louis, practices law. He will continue to rent office space there.

In addition, founder and managing director Michael C. Hodes, said the lawyers have decided to no longer include any elected officials as firm members, meaning Del. Mary-Dulany James of Harford County, daughter of former Senate President William S. James, also will leave the Hodes firm in January.

Ulman said he had no choice.

"I did not want to be in a position where I was faced with conflicts between Howard County and clients of the law firm," Ulman said, adding that he did not know when he commented on the open-meetings issue that the firm was involved in the case. "The bottom line is I need to be in position to speak my mind and do the job citizens elected me to do." The resignation was effective Dec. 2, the day Ulman was sworn into office, he said.

With offices in Towson, Columbia, Bel Air, Bethesda and Washington, the growing firm acquired a large public education practice in October 2001, when Leslie R. Stellman and several associates were hired from a firm that closed.

Hodes said it was not Ulman's public comments that forced his departure, but "it probably accelerated our step. We have a firm of 55 attorneys, Ken made a comment. This is contrary to our position," he said.

"If you represented Howard County you wouldn't be happy with that comment," Hodes said, adding that the firm had begun examining its ethical stance by then by consulting a bar association expert, then hiring an outside consultant.

"The minute [Ulman] got elected, we looked into it," Hodes said.

Ulman's selection as county Zoning Board chairman has pointed to another possible area of conflict, though Ulman's legal practice is in elder law, trusts and wills.

"We made a decision that we will not have any politicians in the firm."

Mel Hirshman, Maryland Bar Association bar counsel, said the advent of huge, sometimes global, law firms has increased the potential for conflicts of interest in the field.

"Firms simply have to watch the activities of their lawyers. You just got to be as careful as you can today," not to create even the perception of a conflict because the public is watching, he said. To that end, many firms, such as Hodes', have in-house ethics committees and consult ethics experts when issues arise.

Stellman is defending the board against a suit by Allen Dyer, a resident who says the board continually and willfully circumvented sunshine laws during the past several years. The suit was filed two years ago and the trial is under way in Howard County Circuit Court.

Stellman said Ulman's election put him in a "peculiar situation" because the County Council "has a supervising role" over the school board.

"His comments to the press were made as a public servant. They are his and he's entitled to make them. My concern was a long-range problem of a conflict of interest," said Stellman, who, with the other "education group" lawyers, works from the firm's Towson office. The firm represents a dozen Maryland school boards, Stellman said.

Hodes said that because of his close personal relationship with Louis Ulman, "it broke my heart that we had to have Ken split off. I've known him since he was a little boy. Mary-Delany James is looking to leave us in the first of the year. The reason is we have this public-sector practice. It's something we were forced into. It's unfortunate," he said.

County Council Chairman Guy J. Guzzone, a North Laurel-Savage Democrat and Ulman's friend and supporter, said, "He's really done the right thing. He dealt with it appropriately to avoid a conflict of interest."

Ulman said things have worked out for the best.

"In the long run, I'm very happy with the arrangement. I need to maintain my ability to be honest and speak out and always stand up for the people. That has to come first," he said.