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Law 2023: THE HON. MICHAEL URBANSKI
Born in Italy, Urbanski received his bachelor’s degree from William & Mary and his law degree from the University of Virginia. He started his legal career in 1981, clerking for Judge James Clinton Turk of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia. From 1982 to 1984, he worked in Vinson & Elkins’ […]
Law 2023: BENJAMIN J. LEIGH
A native of Northern Virginia, Leigh works with business and real estate clients on transactions, planning and litigation. He graduated from the University of Richmond and earned his law degree cum laude from the same school. After clerking for then-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia Harry L. Carrico, he practiced with Blankingship & […]
Law 2023: BRADLEY J. LINGO
Lingo became dean of Regent University’s law school in June, after former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice Mark Martin left to become founding dean of the High Point University School of Law. Lingo has guided Regent Law toward records for enrollment, median LSAT and U.S. News & World Report rankings. In the publisher’s 2023 […]
Unfinished business
The tone of the 2023 General Assembly can be encapsulated in its approach to electricity rates. With dozens of lawmakers poised to retire, the General Assembly passed a major energy law, giving the State Corporation Commission added leeway over adjusting customer rates for utilities Dominion Energy Inc. and Appalachian Power. Yet, at the same time, […]
Tech support
With the combination of new tech businesses and older companies employing artificial intelligence and other innovations, Virginia needs lawyers who know the difference between bitcoin and blockchain. As the commonwealth becomes home to more defense contracting giants, along with Amazon.com Inc.’s HQ2, law firms and law schools are busy bringing attorneys and students up to […]
Bills to ensure workers paid sick days failed in Va. House
RICHMOND, Va. — The Virginia General Assembly did not pass legislation this session to ensure paid sick days for employees, despite strong public support. A 2021 study by Christopher Newport University found almost 90% of people surveyed support paid sick leave. Both House and Senate versions of the bill updated the current law that state […]
Resetting the bar
Two venerable Virginia law firms — Roanoke’s Woods Rogers PLC and Norfolk’s Vandeventer Black LLP — combined forces in July 2022, creating the state’s fifth largest firm, Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black PLC, based in Roanoke. It’s a true statewide firm, with branch offices in Norfolk, Richmond, Lynchburg and Charlottesville, in addition to locations in Kitty […]
Morrissey’s Petersburg casino bill fails in Senate Finance
Updated Friday, Feb. 3 With an 7-8 no vote Thursday evening, the Virginia Senate Finance and Appropriations Committee killed state Sen. Joe Morrissey’s measure to bring a casino referendum to Petersburg’s ballots this fall. A similar bill in the House of Delegates, however, is still alive. A few days after receiving support from the Senate […]
Va. Bar Association installs 2023 president
Benjamin D. Leigh became the 2023 president of the Virginia Bar Association on Jan. 22, the Richmond-based professional association announced Thursday. With a practice focused on real estate, Leigh is a principal at Leesburg-based Troxell Leigh PC, which he co-founded as Mims, Atwill & Leigh PC in 2002. Before that, he worked with the Fairfax […]
Va. bill aims to reduce mental health stigma for health care workers
This story has been updated to include the House of Delegates Health, Welfare and Institutions committee meeting on Tuesday. On April 1, 2020, Dr. Lorna Breen returned to work, with COVID but fever-free. It was the first wave of the U.S. pandemic, and New York was on its way to becoming an epicenter. Nearly 1,400 […]
Smart growth
As Gentry Locke Attorneys prepares to celebrate its 100th birthday in 2023, the venerable Roanoke law firm isn’t slowing down — it’s accelerating. The firm hung out its shingle in 1923 and spent its first 40 years as a regional specialist representing insurance companies before adding corporate and business work in the 1970s and ’80s. […]
Lawyers aim to lower barriers to legal advice for startups
It takes a lot to start a business — a marketable idea, available capital and good advice, among other resources. Tricia Dunlap puts legal guidance in the same bucket. A former history teacher who became a lawyer in her 40s, Dunlap started her own Richmond-based law firm, Dunlap Law PLC, in 2015 to help “un-lawyered […]
