The VLW Blog

Lawyers may be known by the conventions they attend, and conventioneering lawyers know well the Appalachian highland resorts known as the Greenbrier and the Homestead. Today, the Roanoke Times reports, labor troubles or the threat thereof have been cutting business for the Greenbrier, with the Homestead enjoying the benefit of relocated meetings.

[Read more →]

The Roanoke Times says Purdue Pharma, the folks that paid over $630-million in criminal penalties for over-hyping the easily-abused pain pills called OxyContin, now says it has a new version of that time-release medicine that is harder to misuse. Apparently, you can’t grind it up to snort or inject it. Of course, you [...]

[Read more →]

The Roanoke Times takes a look today at lawyer-turned-author David Baldacci and his life on Virginia’s Smith Mountain Lake. Best quote: “Lawyers are paid to tell persuasive stories. So are novelists. Sometimes I think some of the best fiction I ever wrote was when I was a lawyer.”

[Read more →]

John Brownlee, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, will step down in a month after seven years as the region’s top federal prosecutor. He confirmed today that he is considering a bid for the Republican nomination for Virginia Attorney General, but has not made any final determination.
Julie Dudley, now First Assistant [...]

[Read more →]

Grundy native Lee Smith, the award-winning author who has chronicled life in Southwest Virginia in a number of novels, was back in her home region this week. She had a speaking engagement at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
She was asked about an effort to ban her novel, “Fair and Tender Ladies,” by [...]

[Read more →]