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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 […]
Former commerce secretary returns to Williams Mullen
Former Virginia Secretary of Commerce and Trade Brian Ball is returning to his former law firm, Williams Mullen. Ball rejoined Williams Mullen on Oct. 10 as of counsel in its corporate section, supporting and serving the firm’s Economic Development Team and aiding clients with business expansion needs. He’ll be based in the firm’s Richmond office. […]
Virginia State Bar names new exec director/COO
The former deputy executive director of the Virginia State Bar has been promoted to lead the organization responsible for the licensing of more than 50,000 lawyers in the commonwealth. Cameron M. Rountree’s appointment to the state bar’s executive director and chief operating officer was approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia on Sept. 8. He […]
Hitting home
“The stereotypical view is that every young lawyer wants to work from home,” unlike their older peers, observes Victor O. Cardwell, principal and chairman of Roanoke-based Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black PLC. Indeed, 51% of baby boomer attorneys report being eager or very eager to get back to the office, but just 22% of their millennial […]
Legal review
In law firms across Virginia, power is now definitely on the side of individual attorneys, who can command larger salaries and other perks so long as they’re willing to cope with heavier workloads. As demand for legal services has soared, the number of lawyers available to perform that work has slumped, leaving even the most […]
Judge dismisses Trigiani lawsuit against New Peoples Bank
A federal judge issued a summary judgment last week, dismissing all claims in former executive Mary Y. Trigiani’s lawsuit against Russell County-based New Peoples Bank for discrimination and wrongful termination. Trigiani’s complaints of a “cultlike office culture” did not hold up to judicial scrutiny, U.S. District Judge James P. Jones ruled. A Big Stone Gap […]
