Felon should get law license back, VSB says

Waiving in: Supreme Court floats new rules on admission of out-of-state lawyers

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 17, 2012
Tags: Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia State Bar

Debate continues in Virginia legal circles over how the state should regulate lawyers who “waive in” to Virginia practice without taking the bar exam. Lawyers who take another state’s bar exam can gain admission to the Virginia State Bar “on motion” after satisfying a number of procedural requirements, a system generally referred to as “waiving [...]

Judge choices dominate legal highlights for 2012

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 10, 2012
Tags: General Assembly, Judgeships, Lawyer Discipline, Million-Dollar Verdicts, Rules of Evidence, Virginia State Bar, Year in Review

Judges and judgeships again made headlines in Virginia legal news in 2012, with the General Assembly earning national attention with its rejection of an openly gay candidate for a general district court seat. The leading VLW story was a report that, in a year of austerity, legislators with access to the budget process managed to [...]

Board certification claims still allowed

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 7, 2012
Tags: Ethics, Legal Marketing, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia State Bar

Lawyers upset about having to remove board certification credentials from websites and other advertising materials may have prompted the Supreme Court of Virginia to abandon its publicly announced revisions to lawyer advertising rules just two days before they were to take effect. In a Nov. 29 order, the court “vacated and set aside” its Sept. [...]

Martingayle is new VSB president-elect

By Peter Vieth
Published: December 3, 2012
Tags: Elections, Virginia State Bar

Virginia Beach lawyer Kevin E. Martingayle has narrowly won the vote for president-elect of the Virginia State Bar with only one-fifth of the bar casting ballots. Martingayle’s margin of victory over Raymond B. Benzinger of Fairfax was less than 2 percent, according to VSB figures. Virginia lawyers cast 3,072 ballots for Martingayle, compared to 2,955 [...]

Supreme Court reconsiders rules on lawyer ads

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 30, 2012
Tags: Ethics, Legal Malpractice, Supreme Court of Virginia News, Virginia State Bar

Just two days before new rules on lawyer advertising in Virginia were scheduled to take effect, the Supreme Court of Virginia abruptly dropped the planned revision. In a Nov. 29 order, the court “vacated and set aside” its Sept. 18 approval of modifications to the lawyer advertising rules. Those modifications were scheduled to take effect [...]

Lawyer gets suspension for stonewalling VSB

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 30, 2012
Tags: Lawyer Discipline, Virginia State Bar

A lawyer accused of continuing to practice law despite a two-year suspension has been handed an additional two-year suspension after telling the Virginia State Bar “to go f— themselves.”

Ashland’s Smallenberg surrenders law license

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 21, 2012
Tags: Lawyer Discipline, Virginia State Bar

A Hanover County lawyer with a long list of discipline complaints has agreed to surrender his license. Robert H. Smallenberg of Ashland consented to revocation with nine complaints pending against him, according to an order and affidavit provided by the Virginia State Bar. Many of the complaints involved accounting for clients’ money and communication with [...]

Contested election is VSB’s first since ’01

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 9, 2012
Tags: Elections, Virginia State Bar

The national presidential election is over, but there’s another vote yet to cast. Ballots have been mailed to Virginia lawyers in the race for president-elect of the Virginia State Bar, the first such contested election since 2001. Arlington’s Ray Benzinger and Kevin Martingayle of Virginia Beach – both with years of service to the VSB [...]

VSB task force proposes criminal discovery reforms

By Peter Vieth
Published: November 5, 2012
Tags: Criminal, Discovery, Virginia State Bar

A proposal to expand the minimum requirements for discovery in Virginia criminal cases is open for comment at the Virginia State Bar. Many criminal defense lawyers have argued for years prosecutors should have to share more of their information in criminal cases. Many prosecutors say the law is adequate as it is. The changes offered [...]