The VLW Blog

The attorney general’s office is not subject to Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says. In a recent letter denying a citizen’s request for conflict-of-information training data, a senior assistant attorney general responded saying a “good-faith argument” could be made that the office is responsive to FOIA requests only as a courtesy. [...]

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Virginia lawyer and bar leader Mike Pace will become full-time general counsel for Roanoke College, the school has announced. Pace, who spearheaded the effort to bring Rule of Law education to Virginia middle schools, will remain “of counsel” at Gentry, Locke, Rakes & Moore, the Roanoke firm where he was managing partner for 13 years. [...]

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William & Mary’s law school has the “playbook” on pro bono help for military veterans struggling to get government benefits, says U.S. Sen. Mark Warner. The Virginia Democrat is urging Senate colleagues to push the W&M model on law schools in their home states to provide “tangible assistance” to veterans on complex claims. The Lewis [...]

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Former Virginia Attorney General Anthony F. Troy has been hired to represent Gov. Bob McDonnell in the politically flavored criminal case against a former chef in the state Executive Mansion. McDonnell is not charged in the case, but the chef’s defense lawyers have raised allegations ranging from misuse of kitchen resources to unreported gifts from [...]

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Megan Frederick has been under fire since winning a close election last fall as Culpeper County commonwealth’s attorney. She was seen by some local attorneys as an outsider who displaced a long-serving local prosecutor. She reported security breaches in her office, including a menacing note taped to a door. She began carrying a handgun on [...]

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A Louisa woman gets another chance at a false arrest claim against a police officer who entered her home after her ex-husband requested a check on their 11-year-old daughter. The officer arrested the woman for battery, but Virginia law allows corporal punishment and the officer could not automatically assume that any touching of the child [...]

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Federal appeals court judges – and one former U.S. Supreme Court justice – are dining with Gov. Bob McDonnell this evening. McDonnell is hosting a reception and dinner for the judges of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in honor of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. O’Connor is sitting with the [...]

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Judges would lose a troublesome hurdle to entering their own pretrial scheduling orders under a rule change up for comment at the Supreme Court of Virginia. The court’s rules advisory committee is requesting comments from the public, the bench and the bar on proposed revisions to Rule 1:18 governing pretrial scheduling orders in civil cases. [...]

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The former dean of two Virginia law schools, Rod Smolla has given up his latest post as president of South Carolina’s Furman University, citing family concerns. Smolla, who served as dean of both Washington & Lee law school and the University of Richmond law school, announced this week he would step down as Furman president. [...]

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The Roanoke Bar Association has awarded the 2013 Frank W. “Bo” Rogers Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award to attorney Richard C. Rakes of Roanoke. The award was presented at the RBA’s Law Day ceremony May 2. Rakes, who retired in 1991 after 40 years with Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore, is one of the firm’s founders [...]

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