The VLW Blog

U.S. Magistrate Judge B. Waugh Crigler says he will step down at the end of his term in September. He will have served 32 years in the Western District of Virginia, sitting primarily in the Charlottesville and Harrisonburg federal courthouses. A native of Culpeper, Crigler, 64, had a litigation practice in that town before his [...]

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Retired U.S. District Judge Glen M. Williams of Jonesville died Sunday at the age of 92, various sources report. Judge Williams had served on the federal bench for 34 on the district court bench. He was appointed by President Gerald Ford in 1976. He assumed senior status in 1988 and remained active as a judge [...]

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Norfolk U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith this week assumed the duties of chief judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, becoming the first woman judge in that position and the first Norfolk-based judge to serve as chief in 26 years. A native of Hopewell, Smith was appointed to the district court bench in 1989 [...]

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Roanoke lawyer Robert S. Ballou has been selected as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Virginia to replace Michael Urbanski, who was recently elevated to the district court bench. Ballou is a partner with the Roanoke firm of Johnson, Ayers & Matthews. He served for eight years on the Virginia State Bar’s [...]

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Two days, two new federal judges in Virginia. The U.S. Senate followed up its confirmation of Arenda L. Wright Allen yesterday for a seat in the Eastern District by confirming Magistrate Judge Michael F. Urbanksi this afternoon for a position in the Western District. The votes for both candidates were unanimous. President Barack Obama followed [...]

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The U.S. Senate confirmed this afternoon the nomination of Arenda L. Wright Allen for a U.S. district judgeship in Norfolk. Allen has been an assistant federal defender in Norfolk since December 2005 and has headed the office for the past five years. Before joining the defender’s office, she worked for 14 years as an assistant [...]

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John A. Gibney Jr. has been sworn in as a U.S. District Court judge by Senior Virginia Supreme Court Justice Harry L. Carrico, for whom Gibney clerked in 1976. Also present in the large seventh floor courtroom in the federal courthouse on May 6 in Richmond was former Gov. Gerald L. Baliles, for whom Gibney [...]

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U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne says local counsel are essential to the smooth functioning of the rocket docket of the Richmond federal courts. “You have to educate the out-of-town lawyers about the way things are done here,” he told a courtroom full of lawyers last week at a continuing legal education program sponsored by [...]

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Senior U.S. District Judge Jackson L. Kiser was regaled by colleagues and friends Monday as he received the Roger L. Groot Professionalism Award from the Ted Dalton American Inn of Court in Salem. Kiser, a former Martinsville lawyer, was appointed to the federal bench by President Reagan in 1981. His noteworthy decisions include a ruling [...]

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U.S. District Judge James Jones minced no words denying lawyer John Flannery’s claim that the judge had secret meetings with prosecutors in the Paul Thomson cocaine case.  “Mr. Flannery’s assertion is outrageously false and unfounded,” Jones wrote in an order Thursday. Flannery – who is defending the Winchester lawyer accused of buying cocaine from a [...]

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