Publisher's Notebook

The Federal Bar Association threw a party last night, ostensibly honoring all the federal judges who work in Richmond. But it turned out to be a final farewell to U.S. Magistrate Judge Dennis W. Dohnal, who is retiring from the bench next week.

Dohnal is wrapping up 12 years on the job and will become a mediator with The McCammon Group.

U.S. District Judge James Spencer saluted Dohnal for his work and his efficiency. The judges in the Eastern District take their reputation as the “rocket docket” seriously and want to keep the #1 ranking as the fastest trial court to move cases from filing to resolution.

He thanked Dohnal for his hard work, all done with grace and a sense of good humor, long one of Dohnal’s distinctive traits.

Spencer said the Richmond federal judges passed the hat and collected enough money to give Dohnal a healthy gift card to a marine shop so he can buy something for his boat.

The judge also said the group wanted to buy Dohnal a case of his favorite wine as a going-away present.

Spencer went to a tony wine shop and asked the clerk if they carried the particular brand. The clerk was “offended,” he said.

Where can I find that, Spencer asked.

“Food Lion?” the clerk offered.

Spencer (who judiciously didn’t name the wine) said they bought Dohnal three bottles of his favorite and completed the case with a few others that were a little more “aspirational.”

Given his moment, Dohnal cracked that he often wondered what it would be like to attend his own funeral; with all the nice comments, it might have seemed that way.

FBA President Rick Witthoefft noted that Dohnal’s work at a variety of legal causes was tireless. He chaired a Virginia State Bar group that spent several years in the late 1990s working through changes to the ethics code that became the Rules of Professional Conduct in 2000.

Dohnal’s other good-guy works have been chronicled for 20 years or more in this newspaper. He served on numerous panels. He spearheaded an effort to raise court-appointed pay in Virginia. He was tapped as one of Virginia Lawyers Weekly’s “Leaders in the Law” in 2010. The other members of the Class of ’10 voted him as “Leader of the Year.”

What’s next? He and his wife Alicia are taking a trip to Hawaii (it’s been 42 years since his last visit). On Feb. 13, he reports to McCammon for mediation training.

Part of that training includes a session on mediation ethics. But that should be a crib course.

The author of the course materials: One Dennis W. Dohnal.

WILLIAMSBURG — The Virginia Law Foundation inducted the Fellows Class of 2012 at a dinner ceremony held in Williamsburg Jan. 19. Twenty-three lawyers were honored:

The persons listed below were inducted as the 2012 Class of Fellows:
• Alan D. Albert (Norfolk), shareholder with LeClairRyan.
• Andrea L. Bridgeman (McLean), Associate General Counsel at Freddie Mac.
• Stephen D. Busch (Richmond), partner with McGuireWoods LLP.
• Marni E. Byrum (Alexandria), partner with McQuade Byrum PLLC.
• David P. Corrigan (Richmond), managing partner with Harman, Claytor, Corrigan & Wellman.
• C. Richard Cranwell (Roanoke), senior partner with Cranwell, Moore & Emick, PLC.
• John W. Daniel, II (Richmond), partner with Troutman Sanders.
• Alexander F. Dillard, Jr. (Tappahannock), managing partner with Dillard and Katona.
• Elizabeth K. Dillon (Salem), principal with Guynn, Memmer & Dillon, PC.
• Richard S. Glasser (Norfolk), member of Glasser & Glasser.
• Robert C. Goodman Jr. (Norfolk), partner with Kaufman & Canoles, PC.
• Elizabeth G. Hester (Richmond), partner with Kaufman & Canoles, PC.
• John E. Lichtenstein (Roanoke), founding member of LichtensteinFishwick, PLC.
• Kenneth B. Murov (Newport News), a sole practitioner.
• Elizabeth P. Murtagh (Charlottesville), Deputy Public Defender at Charlottesville-Albemarle Public Defender Office.
• Glenn W. Pulley (Danville), managing partner with Clement & Wheatley.
• J. Waverly Pulley III (Richmond), partner with Hunton & Williams, LLP.
• Judith L. Rosenblatt (Virginia Beach), partner with Brydges, Geroe, Rosenblatt & O’Brien, PLLC.
• Steven D. Rosenfield (Charlottesville), a sole practitioner.
• Conway H. Sheild III (Newport News), principal with Jones, Blechman, Woltz & Kelly.
• Alexander H. Slaughter, (Richmond), Counsel, McGuireWoods.
• Mary Lynn Tate (Abingdon), principal with The Tate Law Firm.
• Lewis W. Webb III (Norfolk), partner with Kaufman & Canoles.

Induction as a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation is a special honor conferred by the VLF Board on selected Virginia attorneys, law professors, and retired members of the judiciary who are deemed to be outstanding in their profession and in their community.

It was a love affair in France. Cue the accordion and get out your beret.

A woman from Northern Virginia met a man while visiting Giverny and fell in love. He was a filmmaker.

After her last visit she learned she was pregnant.

She told him and returned to the states; he visited her and their daughter in Fairfax when the child was 7 months old. Then he stopped calling and drifted into memory.

When the girl was 12, she was watching a TV documentary that included pictures of a guy who looked familiar – the man from her mom’s photo album. Her father.

The mother tracked the man down and sued him for child support. But in Bergaust v. Flaherty the Court of Appeals said non, we don’t have jurisdiction, even though he has acknowledged he was the father. The child was not “conceived or fathered” in the commonwealth, to cite the language of the statute, Code § 8.01-328.1.

Enter Del. Charniele Herring, D-Alexandria. She has filed a bill that won’t allow fathers like the French filmmaker to get off the hook any more.

House Bill 1094 provides jurisdiction when a someone “shown by personal conduct in this Commonwealth, as alleged by affidavit, that the person acknowledged parentage of a child, orally or in writing, in this Commonwealth.”

In other words, if you say, yes, the child is mine, or do anything that shows parenthood, you are subject to jurisdiction in Virginia.

Years ago, lawyers majored in law in college then took the bar and went on to their legal careers.

Anymore, of course, a degree from a law school is required to sit for the bar.

Here’s one from the Everything Old is New Again file.

In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, a Northwestern University law professor and a Chicago lawyer have penned a column arguing that we should cut out law school and allow undergraduates to major in law.

Their reasons: This measure would cut the costs of education, increase the number of lawyers, lower the fees charged by lawyers and serve the public better.

You make the call.