The VLW Blog

The Virginia State Bar and Suffolk lawyer Johnnie Mizelle were preparing for a disciplinary hearing before a three-judge panel next Monday when they reached a deal: Mizelle would consent to a five-year suspension of his law license to settle charges that he groped and solicited a number of female clients.
But the judges in [...]

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Grundy native Lee Smith, the award-winning author who has chronicled life in Southwest Virginia in a number of novels, was back in her home region this week. She had a speaking engagement at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
She was asked about an effort to ban her novel, “Fair and Tender Ladies,” by [...]

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We’ve reported stories in the past about road hazards caused by stuff spilled on the highway. Concrete. Fruit. A load of eggs on the Beltway in Northern Virginia.
Here’s a new one: Chicken fat. If that sounds pretty gross, it was.
A tanker was carting chicken fat, a processing byproduct, from a Perdue poultry plant [...]

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The idea of naming the new federal courthouse in downtown Richmond after Judges Spottswood W. Robinson III and Robert R. Merhige Jr. has been circulating for about two years, with a push from local bar groups.
Last October, Sens. John Warner and George Allen introduced legislation to secure the name, but it went nowhere.
Allen [...]

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Gov. Tim Kaine appointed Prince William Circuit Judge LeRoy F. Millette Jr. today to fill the Virginia Court of Appeals vacancy created by the retirement of Judge James W. Benton Jr.
Millette, who has a background as a law firm associate and partner, a sole practitioner and a state prosecutor, was named a general district judge [...]

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Property owners who lived near Chesapeake Airport have won the right to damages for noise and vibration that they say has ruined the once quiet, rural setting of their West Landing Estates neighborhood.
In operation since 1977, the airport completed its last runway extension in 1999. George and Margaret Osipovs bought their home in March 2001 [...]

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President Bush has nominated David J. Novak and Mark S. Davis for federal judgeships in Richmond and Alexandria, respectively.
Novak is an assistant U.S. attorney who worked on the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, the convicted Sept. 11 conspirator. Davis is a circuit judge in Portsmouth.
Both men were on the list of candidates submitted by [...]

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Salem lawyer Chris Clemens has garnered endorsements from three Roanoke-area bar groups for a general district judgeship that will open next year after the retirement of Judge Julian Raney, reports the Roanoke Times.
The Roanoke Bar Association and the Salem/Roanoke County Bar Association have endorsed Clemens. The Roanoke Valley Chapter of the Virginia Women Attorneys [...]

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After literally years of debate and discussion, the Smyth County Board of Supervisors has approved a $24 million plan to renovate the county’s historic courthouse in Marion (right), reports the Bristol Herald Courier.
The action came on a 4-3 vote, with the the board choosing the most expensive of several options. But one member noted [...]

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A circuit judge yesterday dismissed embracery charges against a Charlottesville lawyer, reports The Daily Progress.
Deborah C. Wyatt has been accused of improperly attempting to influence a grand jury. In December 2004, she contacted members of a grand jury investigating whether to charge one of her clients, offering herself as a witness. Prosecutors charged her [...]

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