Hello, Fellows – virtual edition

The Virginia Law Foundation’s annual induction of new Fellows is a longstanding feature of the Virginia Bar Association’s winter meeting in Williamsburg. 

The VBA went online this year with its meeting Jan. 22, and so did the VLF, with a program the night before.

As 2021 VLF President Jon Huddleston noted, “The world is a far different place” from what it was last year when the group met. But even if current Fellows, new Fellows and their families were apart and watching a Vimeo video, “We are together in mind and spirit,” Huddleston said. 

Keeping with tradition, the VLF was inducting “18 of the finest citizen-lawyers in Virginia,” Huddleston continued. 

Ed Weiner, chair of the Fellows committee that vets and selects new Fellows, told the incoming group, “You make us proud to be lawyers!”

The 2021 Class of Fellows was:

• Robert A. Angle, Richmond 
• Renu M. Brennan, Richmond 
• Alexandra Brisky Cunningham, Richmond 
• L. Steven Emmert, Virginia Beach 
• Carolyn V. Grady, Richmond 
• Nicole J. Harrell, Norfolk 
• Jack L. Harris, Richmond 
• Jean M. Kelleher, Alexandria 
• R. Lee Livingston, Charlottesville 
• Charles F. B. McAleer Jr., Arlington 
• Sakina Karima Paige, Richmond
• William E. Phillips, Lynchburg 
• Dale W. Pittman, Petersburg 
• Michael J. Quinan, Richmond 
• Colleen M. Quinn, Richmond 
• Robert E. Sevila, Leesburg 
• Kathleen M. Uston, Alexandria 
• Judge (ret.) Robert W. Wooldridge Jr., Herndon

Each of the new Fellows got the opportunity to have his or her accomplishments featured on a slide and to say a few words about the role of citizen-lawyers. 

Wooldridge gets the nod here. In his remarks, he said, “The practice of law as a profession in not just making a living but also serving our community.”

He said, “People often quote that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice, but it doesn’t do so on its own. It only does so when those of us who are able to take action do so.”

He concluded, “No one is in a better position other than citizen-lawyers to undertake that effort.”

Paul Fletcher, VLF Class of 2008