The Cecil County Ethics Commission (Maryland) appointed MacElree Harvey attorney Chris Curtin to lead an ethics investigation. The case involved a conflict of interest complaint raised over the participation of a Commissioner in a Board of Commissioners' decision regarding, and provision of advice relative to, a proposed county water allocation. The Commissioner named in the investigation was employed, at the time, by the bank supplying the funding to the developer requesting the water allocation. Local objections led the County to seek counsel outside of the jurisdiction.

Chris Curtin was selected for this role due to the ethics investigation work he had done for Sussex and New Castle, DE counties. Selection of an attorney in an ethics investigation requires the attorney: to carefully review the rules and the alleged violation; identify and interview witnesses (sometimes including high profile elected officials, as well as government workers and citizens); collect documentary and other evidence, sometimes by subpoena; and to analyze the facts and law and synthesize the findings into an understandable format, with a minimum of legal jargon. The purpose is to advise Ethics Commissioners, who are not usually lawyers, on the facts and law so that they can make decisions.

In the end, it was determined that the Commissioner in question had acted according to the "least restrictive" interpretation of the ethics rules. Maryland law requires the opposite, to avoid even the "appearance of impropriety." The Commissioner signed a Consent Order agreeing to waive a hearing on the evidence found; to acknowledge that if such a hearing was held, he would be found guilty of the ethics violations charged; to make the Consent Order and a summary of the investigation public; and to abide by the disclosure and participation rules in the future.