Virginia Lawyers Weekly VA Lawyers Weekly
The Virginia Bar Association is recommending six of the 16 candidates seeking a seat on the Court of Appeals of Virginia.
The VBA listed its choices in alphabetical order in a Feb. 7 letter to Senate Judiciary chair John S. Edwards:
- Steven C. McCallum, Chesterfield County circuit judge
- Stacey W. Moreau, Pittsylvania County circuit judge
- Daniel E. Ortiz, Fairfax County circuit judge
- Stuart A. Raphael, former Virginia solicitor general
- Josiah T. Showalter Jr., Wythe County circuit judge
- Catherine French Zagurskie, Virginia Indigent Defense Commission chief appellate counsel
More recommendations are expected. The Virginia State Bar’s Judicial Candidate Evaluation Committee and other bar organizations will interview candidates for the vacant Court of Appeals seat on Feb. 19.
The seat was vacated when Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. was confirmed to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in June.
Besides Alston’s Court of Appeals vacancy, the General Assembly will have the opportunity to pick judges for 11 circuit seats, nine general district seats, and eight juvenile and domestic relations seats this month. The Assembly has set Feb. 27 for judicial elections.
