McClanahan invested on the Supreme Court

Elizabeth A. McClanahan had a terrific 52nd birthday present: investiture as a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia.

With the main courtroom packed and a crowd watching by television in three other rooms, McClanahan took the oath of office from a fellow Southwest Virginian, Chief Justice Cynthia D. Kinser.

McClanahan’s Southwest Virginia roots were the focus of many of the comments during the ceremony, as were her reputation for hard work and her victory over breast cancer.

Jerry W. Kilgore, another Southwest Virginian, hired her as his chief deputy when he was Virginia attorney general. He recalled that he found out that McClanahan was in labor while she participated in a conference call when he received a message 10 minutes after the call ended that McClanahan had just delivered her daughter, Kate.

“After that day, no excuse was ever good enough,” Kilgore said.

He also mentioned McClanahan’s bout with cancer, which he said “wasn’t supposed to strike someone like Elizabeth McClanahan,” who was the picture of health and an extremely hard worker when she was diagnosed with the disease in 2007.

But McClanahan endured a double mastectomy, chemotherapy and reconstructive surgery, and “I know so many women Elizabeth has counseled to survive breast cancer,” Kilgore said.

Johanna Fitzpatrick, who was chief justice of the Virginia Court of Appeals when McClanahan was named to the intermediate appellate court eight years ago, said her relationship with McClanahan had gone from chief judge to “a colleague who admired her to a friend who loves her.”

With a nod toward Kinser, Fitzpatrick said McClanahan had “never said ‘no’ to any request I made of her.”

“She was determined to master her new role as a judge,” McClanahan said. “She worked through everything. She beat cancer and refused to let it interfere with her work.”

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell noted McClanahan’s service as chairman of the State Council of Higher Education and as vice rector of the College of William and Mary and said she has “a servant’s heart and a heart for people.”

She did not speak after donning her robe, hugging each of her new colleagues and joining them on the bench before Kinser adjourned court.

McClanahan succeeds Justice Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. of Salem, who retired earlier this year.

She graduated from Garden High School in Buchanan County and earned an undergraduate degree from the College of William and a law degree from the University of Dayton.

McClanahan spent most of her legal career in Abingdon with the predecessor of PennStuart and practiced all aspects of mineral and energy law, including work as general counsel for manufacturing, construction and gas companies.

Her tenure on the court actually began on Aug. 1, and she sat earlier this week on the three-justice writ panels at which the justices decide which cases merit full review by the court. She will participate in her first argument session beginning Sept. 12, as will another former member of the court of appeals who also was named to the high court on Aug. 1.

Justice Cleo E. Powell replaced Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell Sr., who died in February. Her investiture is set for Oct. 21.