Law 2024: JOHN P. FISHWICK JR.

One of Roanoke’s best-known attorneys, Fishwick also is a familiar face to national news viewers. A former U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia nominated during the Obama administration, Fishwick regularly appears on national news outlets like MSNBC, Fox News and NBC News as a legal expert opining on current events ranging from U.S. Supreme Court decisions to the criminal cases against former President Donald Trump and Hunter Biden.

As founder of downtown Roanoke trial law firm Fishwick & Associates, Fishwick primarily takes on personal injury and federal criminal defense clients.

In September 2023, U.S. Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine met with the Rev. Edward Burton, Fishwick and others championing the effort to rename the Poff Federal Building in Roanoke after civil rights lawyer Reuben Lawson. A few months later, Warner introduced a Senate bill to rename the building. It’s not the first time Fishwick has campaigned to honor a trailblazer. In 2018, Fishwick spearheaded efforts to name the tennis courts at Roanoke’s River’s Edge
Sport Complex after Carnis Poindexter, a Black player who won the first integrated tennis tournament in the
Star City. 

Fishwick earned his law degree from Washington and Lee University.