Virginia Bar Association | Virginia Lawyers Weekly

Effort to reinstate mandatory IOLTA dies in House committee

By Alan Cooper
Published: February 28, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, IOLTA, Virginia Bar Association, Virginia State Bar

The effort in the 2011 General Assembly to revive mandatory IOLTA is dead for the time being.
Proponents of reinstating mandatory IOLTA as a tool to raise money for legal aid failed to clear the first hurdle – lifting the ban on the concept the Assembly imposed in 1995.
The fight over IOLTA strained relations between the [...]

Trigiani: VBA is about making connections

By Alan Cooper
Published: February 4, 2011
Tags: Virginia Bar Association

When Lucia Anna Trigiani entered the University of Richmond law school in 1980, she expected to return to Big Stone Gap and be a trial lawyer.
But she took a summer job at the end of her first year of law school with the Virginia Real Estate Commission reviewing applications for the registration of condominiums.
The job [...]

Senator to VSB: So where would you say we get the money?

By Peter Vieth
Published: January 26, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia Bar Association, Virginia State Bar, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

The Virginia State Bar may have difficulty hanging on to its $5 million reserve fund. But there still may be hope for thawing the freeze on new judges in Virginia.
Leaders from a number of the commonwealth’s bar groups trooped to Capitol Hill on Jan. 25, appearing before the House Appropriations Committee for an early-morning session, [...]

Increase in GDC jurisdiction, IOLTA bill advance

By Alan Cooper
Published: January 21, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, General District Courts, IOLTA, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia Bar Association, Virginia State Bar, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

A proposal to raise the jurisdictional limit for civil cases from $15,000 to $25,000 cleared the civil subcommittee of the Senate Courts of Justice Committee yesterday.
Senate Bill 774, patroned by A. Donald McEachin, D-Richmond, had the support of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, the Virginia Bar Association, the Virginia Bankers Association and such high-volume collections [...]

VSB backs off lobbying on judges, its reserve

By Alan Cooper
Published: January 20, 2011
Tags: General Assembly, Gov. Bob McDonnell, Judgeships, Justice Cynthia D. Kinser, Virginia Bar Association, Virginia State Bar, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

The Virginia State Bar will try to keep a low profile on the two major issues facing the legal system in the General Assembly this session, VSB President Irving M. Blank told the organization’s executive committee recently.
“The ball has been handed off to the voluntary bars” on the issue of the freeze in judicial vacancies, [...]

Proposal: Expand pro bono by corporate counsel

By Alan Cooper
Published: January 5, 2011
Tags: Corporate Counsel, Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr., Pro Bono, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia Bar Association, Virginia State Bar

Corporate counsel would be able to provide pro bono legal services without the supervision now required by rules of court, according to a proposal by a joint task force of the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia Bar Association.
The proposal would apply to attorneys licensed in another state but limited largely to representing their corporate [...]

Thawing the judicial freeze may be hard

By Alan Cooper
Published: December 13, 2010
Tags: General Assembly, Judgeships, Virginia Bar Association, Virginia State Bar, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association

Lobbyists know that legislators pay attention to pain.
There’s plenty of pain to go around these days, as members of Virginia’s General Assembly gird their loins for the start to the 2011 legislative session.
Lawyers who want to get legislators’ attention need to tell stories about how their clients are being affected by the decision earlier this [...]

4th Circuit judges give help with ‘Rule of Law’ project

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 29, 2010
Tags: Federal Courts, Judge G. Steven Agee, Judge Roger L. Gregory, Virginia Bar Association

Middle and high school students around Virginia are getting schooled in the importance of the law through the Virginia Bar Association’s Rule of Law project. Events this month have exposed students to the unique government lesson in Petersburg, the Charlottesville area and the Roanoke Valley.
The education initiative has attracted top flight instructors. Judges Roger L. [...]

Busch wants VBA to help veterans

By Paul Fletcher
Published: October 19, 2010
Tags: Virginia Bar Association

Virginia Bar Association President Steve Busch wants the VBA to do for veterans what it already does for the needy and hungry – to help by raising money and awareness.
Busch has issued a call to action to members of the association to help raise funds for the Veterans Benefits Clinic at the William & [...]

12 Steps, 25 Years: Lawyers Helping Lawyers marks anniversary

By Alan Cooper
Published: October 11, 2010
Tags: Justice Harry L. Carrico, Virginia Bar Association, Virginia State Bar

In its 25 years of serving impaired attorneys, Lawyers Helping Lawyers has reached out to lawyers wherever they can: at home, in the office, even in judges’ chambers. But one longtime supporter says they’ve only touched the “tip of the iceberg.”
William D. Dolan III wanted to develop an organization to help lawyers addicted to drugs [...]

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