Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Virginia Court of Appeals Judge Jean Harrison Clements will retire Dec. 31 after eight years on the intermediate appellate court and 22 years as a state judge.

Clements reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 this year but she said, “I would have continued if the statute had permitted me to do so.”

“It has been a great pleasure for me to have been a member of the court of appeals, and I have enjoyed every minute of it,” she said. She said she intends to continue to work as a senior judge on the court.

Del. David B. Albo, R-Fairfax, chairman of the House Courts of Justice Committee, noted that after the departure of Clements, who is from Loudoun County, the most populous area of the state will have no representative on the 11-member court of appeals. The northernmost member of the court will be Judge James W. Haley Jr., who hails from Stafford County.

22 years on the bench

A native of Front Royal, Clement transferred in 1962 to the University of Virginia law school after three years at what was then James Madison College.

She clerked for the Arlington County Circuit court for two years and had a private practice in Arlington until she moved to Loudoun County in 1971. She maintained a solo practice there until she was appointed to the juvenile and domestic relations district court there.

She said she loved her work on the court. “It was a place where you could make a difference in someone’s life.”
She was elevated to the circuit court in 1998 and to the court of appeals in 2000.

Clements said she was one of only five women in her law school class and could recall only one other woman practicing in Leesburg when she moved there. A small core of female attorneys established themselves shortly after the move, she said.
Clements said she plans to devote more time to such hobbies as bird photography, stamp collecting, genealogy and a more recent avocation, piano.

Albo said he is not sure yet of the procedure the General Assembly will use to select a replacement for Clements.

Statewide bar groups typically make recommendations for vacancies on courts with a statewide constituency, but they usually do so only on the request of the appointing authority, and no such request has been made, according to a spokeswoman for the Virginia State Bar.

Other mandatory retirements

According to the Division of Legislative Services, four other judges have reached the mandatory retirement age and are not eligible for reappointment. They are Norfolk Circuit Judge John C. Morrison Jr. and General District Judges W. Edward Hudgins Jr. of Virginia Beach, Robert D. Laney of Chesterfield County and S. Lee Morris of Portsmouth.

Several other judges also plan to retire: Circuit Judges N. Prentis Smiley Jr. of York/Poquoson and William L. Wellons of Lunenburg; General District Judges Robert R. Carter of Chesapeake, Marvin C. Hillsman Jr. of Harrisonburg, A. Lee McGratty of Staunton and John A. Paul of Harrisonburg; and Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Judge J. Maston Davis of Warsaw.

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