At least six lawyers have raised concerns about a Virginia State Bar proposal to explicitly ban lawyers from initiating sexual relations with a current client. But there is no consensus on what’s wrong with the proposal. One lawyer questioned the ...

Tagged with: bar discipline Virginia State Bar

Richmond environmental lawyer Brian L. Buniva is in line to become the president of the Virginia State Bar in 2020. Despite expressed interest from other attorneys, no one else filed by the Oct. 1 deadline to challenge Buniva’s nominating petition ...

Tagged with: Virginia State Bar Virginia State Bar News

A Virginia prosecutor has been charged by a Virginia State Bar disciplinary panel with “dishonesty and misrepresentation” in concealing information about a police drug informant. The case against Joseph W. Lee III, formerly with the Portsmouth commonwealth’s attorney’s office, marks ...

Tagged with: Discipline Virginia State Bar

ROANOKE – Justice William C. Mims of the Virginia Supreme Court compares his formula for well-being with the cylinders of his car. The car may have six cylinders, but if the spark is lacking for any one of them, the ...

Tagged with: Health & Wellness Justice William C. Mims Supreme Court of Virginia News Virginia State Bar

VIRGINIA BEACH — Virginia’s appellate courts will launch pilot mediation projects for civil cases next year. A study committee recommended in April that the courts give appellate mediation a try. The Supreme Court of Virginia gave the green light in ...

Tagged with: Chief Justice Donald W. Lemons Virginia State Bar

A former Tysons Corner law firm associate has agreed to a two-and-a-half-year license suspension, admitting he lied about uncompleted work on collections cases over a period of more than two years. When he admitted his lapses and his lies in May of ...

Tagged with: Discipline Virginia State Bar

Law students in Virginia are asking for a rule change which they say will allow them to seek mental health treatment without fear of its impacting their careers. The question arose when students from the University of Richmond sent a ...

Tagged with: Virginia Board of Bar Examiners Virginia State Bar

A former Alexandria attorney who paid himself more than $1 million for work on a decedent’s estate gave up his license last month in the face of seven ethics charges, including accusations of a wrongful act, making a false statement ...

Tagged with: Virginia State Bar

Lawyer Joe Morrissey’s 2014 conviction for contributing to the delinquency of a minor has led to a finding that he violated the Rules of Professional Conduct. A three-judge Richmond Circuit Court panel concluded March 28 that Morrissey’s 2013 relationship with ...

Tagged with: Judge Paul W. Cella Virginia State Bar

A Lynchburg lawyer who ran afoul of a bankruptcy judge, failed to show at a series of court appearances and then skipped a Virginia State Bar disciplinary hearing has been disbarred. Brent L. Barbour’s pattern of violations over a short ...

Tagged with: Virginia State Bar