The VLW Blog

Lynchburg General District Judge Ed Burnette once again joined forces with longtime Lynchburg lawyer Frank Morrison at a recent bar gathering to boost the numbers of Lynchburg-area lawyers who contribute their skills for the greater good.
Burnette said working at the Virginia Legal Aid Society immediately after graduating from law school was “one of the most [...]

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Hunton & Williams LLP was recognized last week for its lawyers’ pro bono work on behalf of veterans.
Since 2008, Hunton lawyers have provided legal help to recent veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seeking disability benefits; they have worked in partnership with the Lawyers Serving Warriors project of the National Veterans Legal Services [...]

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WASHINGTON D.C. – The legal department of Verizon Communications Inc. was honored Sept. 22 with a Community Service Award, presented by the Washington Metropolitan Area Corporate Counsel Association at its 7th annual awards program at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C.
Under the leadership of General Counsel Randal Milch and Associate General Counsel John Frantz, Verizon has [...]

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Are law firms doing so well that they’ve stopped doing good?
That’s one response to a new survey of pro bono efforts among the nation’s 200 highest grossing law firms.
Of the 174 law firms participating in the AmericanLawyer.com survey, the law firm that saw the biggest drop in pro bono hours – international law firm Quinn [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia has accepted a proposal by a joint task force of the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia Bar Association that will make it easier for corporate counsel who are not licensed in Virginia to provide pro bono services.
Corporate counsel now can provide such services only in programs operated and controlled [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia has asked the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia Bar Association to submit a proposed rule for pro bono practice by corporate counsel.
The request followed comments last month by Randal S. Milch, executive vice president and general counsel of Verizon Communications Inc., about “regulatory impediments” by the Virginia State Bar [...]

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Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr. has scheduled a pro bono summit meeting April 27 in Richmond to review lawyer volunteer efforts from around the state, according to Virginia Bar Association president John Epps.
In a letter to bar leaders, Epps explains the summit meeting is part of the chief justice’s initiative to beef up the [...]

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A handful of sympathetic lawyers in Salem and Roanoke have managed to save the day for three Peruvian college students stuck without jobs in Virginia while on an exchange program.
As reported by The Roanoke Times,  attorney Correy Diviney took up the students’ cause without charge, filing suit against the Nashville-based student exchange company that apparently [...]

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The Virginia State Bar has named two winners for its 2007 Lewis F. Powell Pro Bono Award: John M. Oakey Jr. and volunteers at the Mortimer Caplin Public Service Center at the University of Virginia law school.
Since his retirement from McGuireWoods LLP, Oakey has handled numerous pro bono projects in the Richmond area. The [...]

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