Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Circuit Judges Burke F. McCahill of Leesburg and John E. Wetsel Jr. of Winchester are among a group of nine candidates who have told the Virginia State Bar that they are interested in a seat on the Virginia Court of Appeals.

The vacancy on the 11-member court was created by the departure of Judge Jean Harrison Clements of Leesburg, who had reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. She was the only resident of Northern Virginia, the state’s most populous region, on the court.

The other candidates are:

• Ondray T. Harris, director of community relations service for the U.S. Department of Justice. A graduate of Hampden-Sydney College and the Washington and Lee University law school, Harris had worked previously as an assistant attorney general in Richmond, as a partner at LeClairRyan in Richmond and as an administrator in other Justice Department departments related to employment disputes.

• E. Roy Hawkens, chief administrative judge for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the College of William and Mary law school, Hawkens was a naval submarine officer before attending law school and worked for 20 years on the appellate staff of the U.S. Justice Department’s civil division. He became an administrative judge in 2004.

• Alexander N. Levay, a sole practitioner in Leesburg. A graduate of Hamilton College and the George Washington University law school, Levay was an assistant public defender in Fairfax and the public defender in the 20th Judicial Circuit before entering private practice in 1996. He is a former president of the Hispanic Bar Association of Virginia and is an at-large member of the VSB executive committee.

• Patricia P. Nagel, an assistant appellate defender for the Indigent Defense Commission. A graduate of Old Dominion University and the University of San Francisco law school, Nagel has worked as a public defender in California and in Virginia and worked as a part-time sole practitioner in Williamsburg for three years before rejoining the Indigent Defense Commission staff in September.

• Christine M. Spurell, an appellate and research attorney for the federal public defender’s office in Roanoke and Abingdon. A graduate of Oberlin College and Harvard Law School, Spurell has worked as an associate and of counsel to law firms in Washington and in Abingdon and as a staff attorney for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

• Kimberley Slayton White, the commonwealth’s attorney in Halifax County since 2004. A graduate of the University of Mary Washington and the Mercer University law school, White has worked as a part-time assistant public defender, as an assistant and deputy commonwealth’s attorney in Lynchburg and as an associate and principal at Woods Rogers PLC’s office in Danville. She is a member of the Virginia State Bar Council and chairs the VSB’s standing Committee on Lawyer Discipline.

• Victoria A.B. Willis, a principal in the Fredericksburg office of DurretteBradshaw PLC. A graduate of the University of Mary Washington and the University of Richmond law school, Willis also has worked in a small firm in Fredericksburg and as legal counsel to Mary Washington Hospital and related entities.

McCahill is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and the University of Richmond law school. He had a general practice with a concentration in family law for 12 years before he was appointed to the Loudoun Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court in 1998 and elevated to the circuit court two years later.

Wetsel is a graduate of Washington and Lee University and the University of Virginia law school. He worked for 16 years in the law firm of Kuykendall, Wetsel & Kuykendall before he was appointed to the circuit bench in July 1991.

Several other bar groups have responded to requests by the House and Senate Courts of Justice Committees to submit recommendations for Clements’ seat.

Nominating committees of the Virginia Women Attorneys Association and the Old Dominion Bar Association will interview candidates Wednesday in conjunction with the VSB. The Northern Virginia Black Attorneys Association, the Hispanic Bar Association of Virginia and the Asian Pacific American Bar Association plan to interview candidates the following day.

The Virginia Bar Association, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association and the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys also plan to make recommendations, but those organizations base their recommendations on submissions from the candidates and background investigations and do not conduct interviews.

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