The VLW Blog

The Virginia State Bar asked for comment on the diversity initiative championed by President Manuel A. Capsalis, and it got it.
More than 60 written comments were sent to Executive Director Karen A. Gould or the VSB’s Virginia Lawyer magazine with cons outnumbering pros by about 3-2.
Capsalis and proponents of the initiative contend that the legal [...]

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He’s baaack!
Thomas A. Edmonds, the executive director of the Virginia State Bar for 19 years before retiring at the end of 2007, will rejoin the VSB in July, this time as a Bar Council member representing Henrico County. Edmonds and Roger T. Creager are unopposed for the vacancies created by the departure of Daniel L. [...]

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The Supreme Court of Virginia will allow the Virginia State Bar to once again post on its Web site disciplinary information about a lawyer before the time for filing an appeal has expired.
The court caught the bar by surprise in March by directing the VSB to remove such information from the site.
The court did [...]

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Ed Walters, CEO of Fastcase Inc., came to Richmond yesterday to talk about the company’s contract for legal research service with the Virginia State Bar, which is up for renewal in February.
A VSB task force, headed by president-elect Jon Huddleston, began several months ago to review complaints by Virginia Beach lawyer Kevin Martingayle and others [...]

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Did you get a nastygram from the Virginia State Bar in the mail last week? One that told you that you didn’t have enough CLE hours?
You’re not alone. I was one of the unlucky ones. But I was left pondering the VSB’s math.
According to the math I learned, 2 + 3 + 4.5 + [...]

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Attorneys who want to keep their names off of the soon-to-be-online list of lawyers in Virginia now can exercise their “opt-out” option at the Web site of the Virginia State Bar.
To keep your name off the online list, log in to the Member Login site in the upper right corner.  Go to Virginia Lawyer Directory [...]

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William H. Pauley III, a federal judge in New York City, didn’t like the case of BrandAid Marketing Corp. v. Cyberian Enterprises Ltd. or the lawyers, one of them  from Richmond, who tried it.
He ruled initially in 2005 that both sides had committed fraud and dismissed their claims under the doctrine of  in pari delicto. [...]

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The Executive Committee of the Virginia State Bar voted unanimously this afternoon, with President Manual A. Capsalis abstaining, to recommend rejection of a proposal for mandatory legal malpractice insurance in the state. 
Several members at first expressed reluctance to take a vote on the issue ahead of tomorrow’s meeting of the VSB Council, when a vote [...]

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Fastcase’s Authority Check versus LexisNexis Shepard’s Citation Service?
Is it even fair to compare the two? These questions dominated discussion today at a meeting of the Virginia State Bar Task Force on On-Line Legal Research. Chaired by VSB president-elect Jon Huddleston, the group is gathering information to help the VSB decide whether to renew its contract [...]

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The Virginia State Bar Council is expected to vote later this month on whether attorneys who represent private clients should be required to have legal malpractice insurance.
While we await the decision, VLW would like to know your opinion.
Support the proposal ? Think it’s bad news for lawyers? You you can let us know where you [...]

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