The VLW Blog

Richmond lawyer John A. Gibney Jr. was scheduled to cruise through the Senate Judiciary Committee at a routine meeting yesterday morning, but Chariman Pat Leahy, D-Vt., was unable to round up a quorum. Gibney is back on the docket for a committee next Thursday. Virginia’s  two Democratic senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner recommended him [...]

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Updated at 10 p.m., April 28, with a link to the hearing. Gibney’s segment begins 124 minutes and 50 seconds into the hearing. Richmond lawyer John A. Gibney spent less than 15 minutes before the Senate Judiciary Committee this afternoon in his quest for a federal judgeship in Richmond. Gibney appeared to benefit from the [...]

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Two more bar groups have announced their endorsements for two federal court vacancies. The Virginia Trial Lawyers Association found U.S. Magistrate Judge M. Hannah Lauck highly qualified for a U.S. District Court seat in Norfolk. The VTLA found Linda S. Laibstain, a partner at Williams Mullen in Norfolk, to be qualified. For a seat in [...]

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President Barack Obama nominated Richmond lawyer John A. Gibney Jr. today for a U.S. District Court vacancy in Richmond. Virginia’s U.S. senators, Jim Webb and Mark Warner, had recommended Gibney for the post and hailed the nomination. It has been more than a year since statewide bar groups vetted candidates for the vacancy created when [...]

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The General Assembly unanimously elected former attorney general and legislator William C. Mims this afternoon to the Supreme Court of Virginia, effective April 1. The election was a foregone conclusion after his appearance Monday before the House and Senate Courts of Justice Committees as the only candidate for the position. Our report on that appearance [...]

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William C. Mims will become only the second person to serve as a Virginia legislator, an attorney general and a member of the Supreme Court of Virginia. Any doubts that he will replace Justice Barbara M. Keenan, who was confirmed last week as a judge of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, disappeared this [...]

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Franklin County Circuit Judge William N. Alexander II wrote the members of the House Courts of Justice Committee yesterday that he has done some serious soul searching since he appeared before the committee on Feb. 24. Our account that appearance is here. He acknowledged mistakes in his handling of a special grand jury that indicted [...]

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The Fairfax delegation to the General Assembly has selected General District Judge Lorraine Nordlund and substitute judges Michael F. Devine and Brett A. Kassabian to fill pending vacancies on the county circuit court. Del. David Albo, the Republican who chairs the House Courts of Justice Committee, said members of the delegation interviewed candidates for the [...]

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Twelfth Circuit judges have appointed D. Gregory Carr, a substitute judge and partner in the firm of Bowen, Champlin, Carr, Foreman & Rockecharlie, to the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court that covers Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights. Carr succeeds Judge Harold W. Burgess Jr., who was elevated to circuit court earlier this year. The [...]

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Harold W. Burgess Jr., a juvenile  and domestic relations district court judge in Chesterfield County and Colonial Heights, appears to have the inside track on the circuit court vacancy created by the elevation of Judge Cleo E. Powell to the Virginia Court of Appeals. The General Assembly elected McGuireWoods partner John V. Cogbill III to [...]

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