Lawyer ‘busted’ by criminal client

Toughen up to seek tough job as judge

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 17, 2013
Tags: Bar Associations, Judgeships, Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan

Being elected as a judge in Virginia may look like a genteel affair, compared to the hurly-burly of direct election as used in other states. But it doesn’t necessarily feel that way to the would-be judges. You need to develop “skin as thick as an armadillo,” said Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth A. McClanahan. She appeared [...]

Law school employment data pushes U.Va. to #1

By Virginia Lawyers Weekly
Published: April 16, 2013
Tags: Law Schools

Virginia law students have something else to brag about. After learning last week that the state’s bar exam is one of the toughest in the nation, University of Virginia law grads also can take pride in the value of their law school education as recently calculated by a California law professor. Pepperdine law professor Derek [...]

Lawyer agrees to close practice to resolve bar complaint

By Peter Vieth
Published: April 15, 2013
Tags: Lawyer Discipline, Virginia State Bar

It happens all the time. A lawyer is accused of misconduct and agrees to accept a public reprimand with terms. The terms usually involve some conditions for the lawyer’s future practice. In one recent case, the terms included what might be termed the death penalty for bar discipline. The lawyer is under orders to close [...]

Virginia bar exam ranks as one of the toughest

By Correy E. Stephenson
Published: April 15, 2013
Tags: Bar Exam

The numbers don’t lie. Virginia lawyers are right when they claim they face one of the toughest bar exams in the country. In fact, we’re number six, according to a new study. Robert Anderson, an associate professor at the Pepperdine University law school, combined bar passage rates with the median undergraduate GPA and LSAT scores [...]

VSB: Lawyer hid in apartment to avoid investigator

By Peter Vieth
Published: April 12, 2013
Tags: Lawyer Discipline, Virginia State Bar

A lawyer who allegedly appeared as counsel in at least 20 court cases after being suspended by the Virginia State Bar, and then apparently hid in his apartment to avoid a VSB investigator, has been summarily disbarred. After two clients complained about ineffective work by David B. Weinberg of Alexandria, the VSB sent the complaints [...]

Assembly funds, but fails to fill, 12 judgeships

By Peter Vieth
Published: April 12, 2013
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judgeships

After budget wrangling with Gov. Bob McDonnell and a post-midnight session of judicial elections, the 2013 Virginia General Assembly filled less than half of the 49 judicial vacancies in the commonwealth. The unfilled openings include 12 seats that had been funded following a contentious back-and-forth among the House, the Senate and McDonnell. The governor now [...]

Attorneys, marketers hesitate to endorse LinkedIn endorsements

By Correy E. Stephenson
Published: April 10, 2013
Tags: Ethics, Social Media, Technology

Brian D. Wassom has never done work on mergers and acquisitions. But someone recently endorsed him for the skill on social networking site LinkedIn. A slip-up like that is part of the reason marketing expert Allison C. Shields, president of New York-based Legal Ease Consulting a legal practice management and marketing firm, is “on the [...]

A Super Bowl sob story

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 10, 2013
Tags: Federal Courts, Judge Anthony J. Trenga, Judge Diana Gribbon Motz, Judge Gerald Bruce Lee, Real Estate

Here’s how missing the Super Bowl can get your case into federal court. Residents of two NoVa subdivisions chafed under contracts that said they could subscribe to one, and only one, cable provider. The folks in Lansdowne on the Potomac, which had over 2,000 residents, began complaining about the quality of service provided by OpenBand [...]

Disbarment raises questions about reciprocal discipline

By Peter Vieth
Published: April 10, 2013
Tags: Bankruptcy, Federal Courts, Judge Stephen C. St. John, Lawyer Discipline, Virginia State Bar

For the second time in a dozen years, a Virginia State Bar discipline panel has struggled with whether Virginia lawyers should be forced to defend their VSB privileges based on suspension or revocation by federal authorities. The issue of so-called “reciprocal discipline” arose in the case of a Portsmouth lawyer who had his privilege to [...]