Obituary: Judge Robert L. Harris Sr.

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Retired Richmond Circuit Court Judge Robert L. Harris Sr. died March 2. He was 87.

Born in Spring Hope, North Carolina, Judge Harris attended high school in Portsmouth, graduating from Cradock High School in 1954. He used the money he earned as a door-to-door salesman and distributor for the Saladmaster Company to pay his tuition at the College of William & Mary, where he earned an economics degree in 1962.

Judge Harris went on to attend the Wake Forest School of Law, earning his law degree in 1964. Following law school, he served in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps until 1967, when he opened a law practice in Richmond with a former business colleague.

In 1982, Judge Harris was appointed to the Richmond General District Court and was elevated to the Richmond Circuit Court in 1984. In his decade on the circuit court bench, Judge Harris served a term as chief judge.

After retiring from the bench, Judge Harris became one of the original members of The McCammon Group, a provider of mediation and arbitration services, when it opened its doors in 1995. In 2007, Virginia Lawyers Weekly reported that Judge Harris had reached nearly $1 billion in the value of settlements he had helped bring about to that point, having taken on more than 1,700 cases in 12 years. Judge Harris retired from The McCammon Group in 2013.

Judge Harris was a member of several legal groups during his career as well as River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond.

Judge Harris is survived by his wife, Audrey; his children, Robert and Laura; his grandchildren, James, Robert, Benjamin and Kathryn; and his siblings, Wilbur and Dorothy.