The VLW Blog

President Obama nominated Jimmie V. Reyna, head of the internal trade and customs practice at Williams Mullen and a leader in the Hispanic bar, yesterday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Reyna works in Williams Mullen’s Washington office and has published two books on international trade. A third is scheduled for [...]

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Public access trumped privacy rights in a case that required court approval of a personal injury settlement for a minor plaintiff. Guardians of a young girl sued the Ambassador Programs Inc. after the girl, 11 years old at the time, returned from a three-week trip to Australia weighing only 91 pounds. The girl’s parents alleged [...]

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A federal judge in Los Angeles has slashed McGuireWoods’ attorneys fees from $12 million to $500,000 in an antitrust case against West Publishing Corp., citing an “egregious breach of ethical duties.” The class action suit, filed by consumers who were allegedly overcharged for the BAR/BRI exam review course, settled for $49 million in 2007. According [...]

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Court business was on hold for a few hours Tuesday morning in Hampton, Portsmouth, and Newport News. State courts there were evacuated and searched in response to a telephone bomb threat directed at all three localities, reports the Daily Press. Apparently, no explosives were found. Courts reopened around midday. By Peter Vieth

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On its own motion, the Virginia Court of Appeals has decided to hear en banc its Sept. 7 decision upholding use of a warrantless GPS device on a man suspected of multiple sexual assaults in the Arlington area. Judge Randolph A. Beales said in the earlier panel opinion that neither installation of the device nor [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia held its writ panel session earlier this month, and has issued the first flush of petitions for appeal granted. Nursing home arbitration, the slayer statute, and an allegedly excessive $9 million jury award are among the issues that the court has agreed to hear. Meanwhile, the court has refused to [...]

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The Virginia State Bar and the statewide volunteer bars have set up the machinery for vetting candidates who want to succeed Justice Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. on the Supreme Court of Virginia The bars are asking for written materials to be submitted to them by Oct. 29. The VSB’s judicial nominating committee and corresponding groups [...]

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Westboro Baptist Church – the folks who stage anti-gay protests at funerals of service members – will be represented at a free public debate Sunday afternoon at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. Margie Phelps, an attorney and church member, will face off against attorney Bill Hurd of Troutman Sanders’ Richmond office. University of Richmond law [...]

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As new U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan was preparing to hear her first arguments, the Harris Poll conducted a survey aimed at determining how knowledgeable Americans are about the process of confirming a justice. Forty-two percent of 2,775 adults surveyed online between Aug. 9 and 16, say they are not knowledgeable about the process. [...]

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A Danville writer researching the famous wreck of the “Old 97″ struck gold when he found a 400-page transcript from a trial involving the engineer’s family and the Southern Railway. As the Danville Register & Bee reports, author Larry Aaron unearthed a number of new sources as he explored the ongoing debate over who was [...]

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