The VLW Blog

Charlottesville lawyer Kevin Ryan does his best Humphrey Bogart imitation in a video he and three staff members at MichieHamlett produced as part of the Big Read program sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts.
The program encourages everyone in an area to read a particular book, and the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library selected Dashiell Hammett’s [...]

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With more than 500 lawyers and an office in Tysons Corner, North Carolina-based Womble Carlyle is poised to expand by taking over a 44-lawyer firm in Charleston, SC.
Buist Moore Smythe McGhee is Charleston’s largest law firm. Its acquisition by Womble is expected to close April 30.
South Carolina Lawyers Weekly reports the merger plan is driven [...]

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An ex-employee of a Virginia Beach law firm allegedly stole $320,000 over 14 months.
Diana Farmer-Forston, a former bookkeeper at Bennett and Zydron, has been charged with 16 counts of forgery and money laundering, reports WAVY-TV. She is currently behind bars.
According to police, Farmer-Forston deposited the money into her own accounts.

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Norfolk-based Vandeventer Black LLP has opened a two-lawyer office in Pasadena, Calif.
Managing partner William E. Franczek said the firm has a major client on the East Coast that also has a West Coast operation and opened the office as a way to provide service to that firm and other clients with a West Coast presence.
The [...]

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James V. Meath, a partner in the Richmond office of Williams Mullen, was elected chairman by the firm’s board of directors yesterday. He succeeds Julious P. Smith Jr., who has become chairman emeritus.
Meath served as chair of the Williams Mullen’s labor and employment practice from 1984 to 2004, and is currently vice chairman of the [...]

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Stephen E. Baril, a longtime litigator at Williams Mullen, has moved to Sands Anderson.
“I am thrilled to be part of a firm with a litigation legacy and one that’s laser-focused on the Richmond business community and has an entrepreneurial spirit,” he said.
“My strength has been in business litigation, and my focus has been on the [...]

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Robert D. Seabolt, a partner in the Richmond office of Troutman Sanders LLP, has been named to the newly created position of chief operating officer.
Seabolt, 55, is a litigator who concentrates his practice on antitrust enforcement and white collar defense. He was managing partner of Mays & Valentine LLP from 1993 until its merger with [...]

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Evan Bayh, the former Indiana governor and senator, has joined the Washington office of McGuireWoods LLP, where the firm says he will serve as a strategic advisor to its most significant clients.
He will counsel clients whose business goals are affected by the actions of Congress and the executive branch and by state government, the firm [...]

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Richmond-based law firm McGuireWoods LLP remains the lone defendant in a securities fraud lawsuit in Kansas after its motion to dismiss was rejected by a federal judge last month.
The action was filed by the trustee in the bankruptcy case of Ethanex Energy Inc. The suit claims McGuireWoods partner Louis Zehil unlawfully profited on sales of [...]

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LeClairRyan has added 16 intellectual property lawyers, a dozen of whom will open an office in Rochester, N.Y., from the international law firm of Nixon Peabody.
The other four lawyers will join LeClairRyan offices in Washington, Alexandria, Chicago and San Francisco.
Gary LeClair, chairman and CEO of LeClairRyan, said the additions will give the firm more [...]

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