The VLW Blog

The Virginia State Bar’s Judicial Nominations Committee has found six candidates highly qualified for the expected vacancy this year on the Court of Appeals of Virginia. One other candidate was found “qualified.” The panel votes first on whether a candidate is “qualified.” A second round of votes is then taken on whether candidates will be [...]

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Virginia State Bar president George Shanks says he plans to make study of foreign government issues a regular part of the bar’s annual mid-year seminars. Writing from Athens, Greece, Shanks said he hopes an annual “Rule of Law Conference” will become a centerpiece of future VSB-sponsored trips. Future conference planners have a tough act to [...]

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Lawyers on a Virginia State Bar excursion to Athens are watching history in the making, with a possible change in that country’s government coming today. Besides earning CLE credits and visiting antiquities, the Virginia barristers reportedly have set up a panel discussion with Greek parliament members and lawyers to discuss the rule of law. “Amazing [...]

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Internet-savvy lawyers are closely watching a Virginia State Bar disciplinary case set for hearing next week involving the right of an attorney to blog about his cases without posting an advertising disclaimer. Richmond lawyer Horace F. Hunter – armed with a brief penned by First Amendment scholar Rodney Smolla – faces a VSB district committee [...]

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Sharon Nelson, a Fairfax lawyer and president of a computer forensics and information security company, will be the Virginia State Bar’s new president-elect. Nelson filed her petition for the post at the VSB’s annual meeting in Virginia Beach this past June. As of the Oct. 1 deadline, no opponents had stepped forward. Nelson will be [...]

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Virginia Beach attorney John W. Hart has surrendered his license to practice law rather than face allegations that he misappropriated more than $85,000. According to Virginia State Bar documents, Hart became trustee of an irrevocable trust in 2004 and misappropriated at least $50,000 from the trust, although the total amount of the misappropriation is not [...]

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York County Commonwealth’s Attorney Eileen M. Addison accepted today a public reprimand from the Virginia State Bar for failing to acknowledge a tentative plea agreement with a key witness during a murder trial in April 2007. That resolution of allegations that she had violated Rules of Professional Conduct had been pending since March 14, when [...]

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The Virginia State Bar’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics again has tweaked its proposed revisions of the rules that govern lawyer advertising. The most substantive change is elimination of an earlier proposal to require lawyers to retain copies of their electronic advertising for a year. Ethics Counsel Jim McCauley said the committee received many comments [...]

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The Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board has issued its formal order recommending denial of Del. Joe Morrissey’s petition for reinstatement of his law license. The order restates at considerably greater length – 63 pages to be exact – the findings Board Chairman William E. Glover announced back in May at the end of a two-day [...]

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A Virginia Beach lawyer has been indicted on federal charges related to the alleged theft of life insurance proceeds that were intended to benefit the minor children of a man who died in 2006. Brian Gay, 52, was scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Norfolk today, when the indictment was made public. The [...]

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