Overview
The Office of the Attorney General (OAG), led by Attorney General Anthony G. Brown, is Maryland's chief legal office. It litigates on behalf of the state, provides legal advice and counsel to the Governor and the General Assembly, and serves as in-house counsel to 40-plus state agencies (education, health, transportation, labor, and more). Its work is organized into divisions including Civil Litigation, Consumer Protection, the Criminal Division, Civil Rights, Antitrust, Securities, the Independent Investigations Division, and the Office of the Solicitor General.
For a technology seller, the OAG is best understood as a litigation- and data-intensive operation rather than a large infrastructure spender: the office runs case-management and document-management systems, performs eDiscovery across high-volume litigation, and — through the Consumer Protection Division — administers Maryland's data-breach notification and data-privacy regime (including the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, with new requirements phasing in through 2026). That mix drives recurring demand for secure storage, data processing/eDiscovery capacity, endpoint refresh for attorneys and investigators, and cyber controls protecting sensitive case data.
The OAG is a relatively small agency by headcount, with roughly 404 authorized positions in FY2026 and a budget that is overwhelmingly personnel.
- OAG is not its own IT-procurement authority — it buys through Maryland's statewide vehicles rather than running a standalone RFP shop
- Maryland DoIT statewide IT contracts are the primary route for OAG endpoint and infrastructure buys — confirm Dell coverage
- DGS Office of State Procurement (OSP) handles broader, non-IT-classified competitive solicitations
- eMaryland Marketplace Advantage (eMMA) is where OAG-related RFPs (e.g., eDiscovery/case-management) get posted
- Fiscal pressure (FY2026 general-fund cut) favors pre-competed statewide contracts over bespoke procurements — lead with value, not custom builds
Where Dell Can Play
- Confirm Dell's position on Maryland DoIT statewide hardware and COTS contracts so OAG endpoint refresh (attorney/investigator laptops, workstations) and server buys flow through an existing vehicle.
- Lead with secure storage and data-management capacity for eDiscovery and case-management — the OAG's core, recurring data workload — and align to its document-management RFP cycle.
- Position cybersecurity and resilient backup for sensitive investigative, criminal, and consumer data, tied to Maryland's statewide cyber priorities and MODPA-driven privacy obligations.
- Map the OAG's IT/DevOps and division leadership (case-management owners, Consumer Protection) by name; engage early on storage/compute needs from criminal and independent-investigations digital evidence.
- Frame proposals around cost-efficiency and pre-competed contracts given FY2026 fiscal pressure — avoid bespoke procurements the office is unlikely to fund.
Budget & Fiscal
The OAG is a small, people-heavy agency — the budget is dominated by salaries for attorneys and investigators, so technology shows up as a modest contractual/operating slice rather than a large capital line. Figures below are from Maryland budget documents; treat the total as approximate and confirm against the current Fiscal Digest before forecasting.
- Funding is a mix of general funds plus special and federal funds tied to specific units (e.g., Medicaid Fraud, consumer/securities enforcement).
- Because ~87% is personnel, technology spend is a small share of the total — size opportunities to contractual services, refresh cycles, and data/eDiscovery capacity, not big infrastructure builds.
- Maryland faced broad fiscal pressure in the FY2026 cycle; expect cost scrutiny and a preference for pre-competed statewide contracts over new bespoke procurements.
Initiatives & Priorities
The OAG procures and operates case-management, document-management, and eDiscovery systems, and has posted manager-level roles overseeing development, vendor RFPs, and a DevOps team. This is the core data-and-storage workload — high-volume litigation drives demand for secure processing, review, and retention capacity.
eDiscovery Data ManagementThrough Consumer Protection, the OAG administers Maryland's breach-notification regime and enforces the Maryland Online Data Privacy Act, with new processing requirements phasing in during 2026. More enforcement means more evidence/data to ingest, store, and analyze securely.
Consumer Protection PrivacyThe office holds highly sensitive investigative, criminal, and consumer data, making endpoint security, secure storage, access controls, and resilient backup recurring needs — reinforced by Maryland's statewide push on cyber maturity.
Cybersecurity Data ProtectionThe Criminal Division and Independent Investigations Division generate digital-evidence and forensic-data volumes (video, documents, device images) that need scalable storage and managed compute — an ISG-aligned opportunity.
Public Safety StorageProcurement
The OAG is not a standalone procurement authority for IT — it buys through Maryland's statewide vehicles. Selling here means being positioned on the right Department of Information Technology (DoIT) statewide contracts and the Department of General Services (DGS) Office of State Procurement vehicles, with solicitations posted on eMaryland Marketplace Advantage (eMMA).
| Vehicle / gate | What it means for Dell |
|---|---|
| Maryland DoIT statewide IT contracts | DoIT runs master/statewide contracts for hardware and COTS software (desktops, laptops, servers, networking, security tools, databases). The primary route for OAG endpoint and infrastructure buys — confirm Dell coverage and reseller positioning. |
| DGS Office of State Procurement | DGS OSP handles broader state procurement and competitive solicitations; larger services or non-IT-classified buys may route here rather than through DoIT. |
| eMaryland Marketplace Advantage (eMMA) | Statewide eProcurement portal where Maryland State, county, local, school, and university solicitations are posted — the place to watch for OAG-related RFPs (e.g., eDiscovery/case-management). |
| Cooperative contracts | Cooperative vehicles (e.g., MEEC for education, and national co-ops) can supplement statewide contracts for technology products and services; verify eligibility for a given OAG buy. |
Spend Signals
GovSpend · as of Aug 5, 2026Dell vs. competitors (spend, payee)
- Maryland's fiscal year runs Jul–Jun; window reflects FY2023–FY2025 PO issue dates (2022-07-01 to 2025-06-30).
- OAG is a small agency — total identifiable IT-reseller spend in GovSpend for this window is under $1M, consistent with a personnel-heavy budget and no large infrastructure buys; this is a plausible true result, not a data gap.
- Brand/product-level footprint (Dell, Cisco, HPE, Lenovo, Apple) could not be sourced: OAG's PO line items are recorded as generic categories or invoice references (e.g., "MICROSOFT SUITE 1 YR SUBSCRIPTION", "DESKTOPS, LAPTOPS, RUGGEDIZED LAPTOPS...") rather than itemized product text, confirmed by sampling; no line item anywhere mentions dell/cisco/hpe/lenovo/apple even under fuzzy matching. dellFootprint and brandFootprint are omitted rather than reported as zero.
- LineItem.Category is empty for this agency, so a categories panel is omitted. No contracts with IT-relevant tags expire 2026-07-29 to 2027-01-31, and no open IT-relevant bids were found for this agency — both panels omitted.
- Excluded as vendor-name false positives (not IT spend): Apple Ford (auto dealership) and Tire Connection (tire shop), both caught by brand/vendor text matching; Hewlett Packard ($5,822, single line item) fell below the $100K reporting threshold.
Power Structure
| Decision-maker | Why they matter |
|---|---|
| Anthony G. Brown Attorney General | Elected statewide; sets enforcement priorities (data privacy, consumer protection, civil rights). The top-of-house relationship and policy driver. |
| Carolyn A. Quattrocki Chief Deputy Attorney General (Governance & Litigation) | Senior operational leader under the AG (re-verified June 2026) — a key relationship for office-wide direction and resourcing. |
| Deputy Attorneys General Division leadership (four practice groups) | Carrie J. Williams (Community Safety & Public Resources), Zenita Wickham Hurley (Equity, Policy & Engagement), Sharon Stanley Merriweather (Health & Human Services, Education & Sustainability), and Leonard J. Howie III (Marketplace Support & Worker Protection) — owners of the workloads that drive eDiscovery and data needs (per 2026 Maryland Manual). |
| Christian E. Barrera / Peter V. Berns Chief of Staff / General Counsel | Office-level operational and legal leadership; the Chief of Staff is a practical entry point for administrative and resourcing questions (re-verified 2026). |
| OAG IT / case-management management Technology & eDiscovery operations | Manager-level IT/DevOps roles own case-management, document-management, and eDiscovery systems and prepare related RFPs — the technical buying center to map by name (names not publicly confirmed). |
| William D. Gruhn — Consumer Protection Division Division Chief; privacy & breach enforcement | Chief of the division that administers data-breach notifications and now enforces MODPA (enforcement live since April 1, 2026) — a unit whose growing caseload increases data-processing and storage demand. |
News & Signals
Sources
- Maryland OAG — About the Office (divisions & leadership)
- Maryland DBM — FY2027 Budget Testimony, C81C00 Office of the Attorney General
- Maryland General Assembly — FY2026 Operating Budget Analysis, C81C Office of the Attorney General
- Maryland OAG — Security Breach Notices (consumer protection / data privacy)
- Maryland Manual On-Line — Office of the Attorney General (2026 leadership roster)
- Ballotpedia — Maryland Attorney General election, 2026
- NBC News — Maryland Attorney General Primary 2026 results (Brown, Rutledge III uncontested)
- Maryland OAG News — Multistate coalition egg price-fixing settlement (2026)
- Maryland OAG — AG Brown Opposes Federal Legislation Weakening State Privacy Protections
- Maryland DoIT — Statewide IT Contracts & Procurement
- Maryland Procurement — eMaryland Marketplace Advantage (eMMA)
- Washington Times — Maryland attorney general defends sanctuary immigration law against federal challenge