For more than 25 years, Summerlin has advised businesses — from sole proprietorships to Fortune 500 companies — in environmental matters. Summerlin also assists employers with employment laws and regulations, including investigations with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

A Roanoke native, Summerlin returned to the Star City in 1997 to work at Woods Rogers after graduating from William & Mary Law School. The firm named him president in 2015.

In 2022, Woods Rogers merged with Norfolk-based Vandeventer Black, becoming Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black. Last year, the law firm — the fifth largest in Virginia — shortened its name back to Woods Rogers.

For the December 2024 issue of the Virginia State Bar’s Virginia Lawyer magazine, Summerlin and John Byrum, the firm’s Richmond office managing partner, contributed a column on how Virginia policy will likely be little changed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Sackett v. EPA, which narrowed the scope of wetlands subject to the Clean Water Act.

Summerlin sits on the board of the Council of Community Services, a Roanoke nonprofit that focuses on housing, health programs, information and referral services, and community engagement.

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An expert in civil procedure and federal jurisdiction, Spencer became William & Mary’s first Black dean in 2020.

Prior to his appointment, Spencer served on the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law. He was the Bennett Boskey Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School during the 2019 to 2020 academic year.

The author of two books on civil procedure, which are used by law students throughout the country, Spencer is also an author of Wright & Miller’s “Federal Practice and Procedure,” a multivolume reference book series.

In his early 40s, Spencer joined the U.S. Army Reserve Judge Advocate General’s Corps. In 2023, he was promoted to major and received the Meritorious Service Medal. Spencer retired from the Corps in June.

After earning his undergraduate degree from Morehouse College, Spencer headed to the London School of Economics and Political Science, where he was a Marshall scholar. In 2001, Spencer graduated from Harvard Law School.

Earlier this year, Spencer joined the board of Southern Company Gas.

ON INTEGRATING AI: It is vitally important that we modify the law school curriculum to provide generative AI competency for our students.

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A former journalist, Fletcher has led the state’s oldest voluntary bar association since 2021.

Under his leadership, the bar this year launched the VBA Leadership Academy to train the legal industry’s next generation of leaders in Virginia.

Additionally, it has developed the first model policy for AI use by law firms and established task forces to address the profession’s future and the growing influence of AI on the practice of law.

Fletcher earned a master’s degree in English from Emory University before getting a law degree from Washington and Lee University in 1985. After graduating, Fletcher worked at White, Elliott & Bundy in Southwest Virginia for three years. In the late 1980s, he joined Virginia Lawyers Weekly as publisher and editor-in-chief, a role he held for more than three decades. He was named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly’s Hall of Fame in May.

Fletcher served as president of the Virginia chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and was named national president in 2015. He’s also a past president of the Virginia Press Association.

PERSONAL MOTTO: I am a big “Star Trek” fan, so I’ll go with “Make it so.”

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In 2019, Smith was named managing partner of the Richmond offiCEOf the firm that was then Troutman Sanders.

In 2020, its name changed to Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders following a merger. In January, the firm completed another merger, this time with Texas-based Locke Lord, becoming Troutman Pepper Locke.

Smith oversees over 150 attorneys working in numerous practice areas, including the strategies group, which is the firm’s full-service government relations subsidiary. Smith also helps lead the firm’s environmental and natural resources practice group.

Additionally, he serves as water and solid waste regulation legal counsel for the Virginia Manufacturers Association, directs environmental affairs in Virginia and West Virginia for the Metallurgical Coal Producers Association and is legal counsel to the Corporate Environmental Enforcement Council.

A University of Richmond and Vermont Law and Graduate School alumnus, Smith is a member of the boards of ChamberRVA, the Library of Virginia Foundation and the Richmond Jazz Society, among others. He has made Thomson Reuters Stand-Out Lawyers list from 2023 through 2025.

WHAT I DO FOR FUN: I’ve run six marathons, four ultras and have … lined up my first attempt at a half Ironman.

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Daniel stepped into the managing partner role at Hancock Daniel in early 2024, succeeding Page Gravely, who held the job for two decades.

Joining the firm in 2004, Daniel is experienced in defending employment law cases, including wrongful termination, discrimination and harassment. She also regularly represents health care entities and professionals.

A frequent speaker to health care groups, Daniel talked about the National Practitioner Data Bank and the Healthcare Quality Improvement Act at the 2024 National Association Medical Staff Services Conference. Additionally, Daniel has addressed groups about Virginia’s marijuana laws and implications for employers.

At Duke University, Daniel received a bachelor’s degree in political science and govern- ment. She earned her law degree at the University of Richmond. Before joining Hancock Daniel, she spent a decade at Troutman Sanders. She also served as a clerk for U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer.

Daniel is the secretary of the board of the Memorial Foundation for Children, a Richmond funding organization that assists agencies serving children. She also sits on the board of trustees of Richmond’s Reveille United Methodist Church.

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In 2020, Randall joined George Mason as dean of its law school. Previously, he served as dean of the University of Alabama School of Law for two decades. During his tenure, UA’s ranking rose from No. 96 to No. 21 on U.S. News & World Report’s Best Law Schools list. Scalia Law School’s rankings have also enjoyed a boost since Randall came aboard, rising from No. 41 in 2018 to No. 31 this year.

The law school had 436 students enrolled at the start of the 2024-25 school year, with 116 students in the entering class, an increase of 18.4% from 2023 but less than half the number of the 2021 class. Despite ongoing budget deficits, the school landed $7.6 million in gifts from donors last year.

In addition to leading Alabama’s law school, Randall founded iLaw Distance Education, an education technology company. The business was acquired in 2017.

An international law specialist, Randall launched his career at New York-based global firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. He earned his law degree from Hofstra University and went on to earn further degrees from Yale and Columbia.

 

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As chief judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, Davis hears the stories of people’s lives. Lives that have been impacted by traumatic events, like armed robberies or gang violence. In 2023, for

instance, Davis sentenced the mother of the 6-year- old boy who shot his teacher at a Newport News elementary school for federal convictions related to the gun the child used.

In his work, Davis also frequently finds himself wading in deep constitutional waters. For example, a pair of Hampton Roads citizens filed a lawsuit in 2024 alleging that the City of Norfolk’s use of automatic license plate reader cameras violates their constitutional rights. In February, Davis ruled that the case could move forward.

“Plaintiffs have plausibly alleged that a warrantless search occurred, and thus interests that the Fourth Amendment was designed to protect have been violated,” he wrote in an order.

Before President George W. Bush nominated Davis to the U.S. District Court in 2007, he served as a Portsmouth Circuit Court judge.

Davis received his bachelor’s degree in American government from the University of Virginia and his law degree from Washington and Lee University.

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After their former law firm dissolved in 1990, Corrigan and colleagues Mike Harman, John Claytor and Stan Wellman launched their own firm, which turns 35 years old in 2026.

A former president of the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys and fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, Corrigan has tried more than 100 cases to verdict and specializes in representing state and local governments and government employees. His clients have included school superintendents, mayors, city council members and police officers.

Over the course of his career, Corrigan has been associated with several high-profile cases. He represented the City of Charlottesville in a lawsuit filed by RaShall M. Brackney-Wheelock, the city’s first Black female police chief, who alleged she experienced racial and gender discrimination.

He received his bachelor’s degree from Hampden-Sydney College and his law degree from Notre Dame, and is aboard member of Elk Hill Farm, a Goochland County mental health care organization and school.

A player of pickleball, tennis and basketball, Corrigan likes to see good sportsmanship both on the court and in the courtroom.

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A litigator, Sklaire focuses on government investigations, civil fraud cases, and financial services litigation and regulation at Greenberg Traurig, a global law firm with more than 2,850 attorneys in 49 offices.

Sklaire represents corporations and executives before federal agencies including the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission.

Earlier this year, Sklaire served as part of a team representing Jennifer Kerkhoff Muyskens, a former federal prosecutor who went before a hearing committee of the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility for allegations of manipulating evidence in cases of people arrested at President Donald Trump’s first inauguration in 2017.

Previously, Sklaire worked as an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut’s Organized Crime Task Force. He was also a special assistant to the U.S. attorney in the Southern District of California and the Western District of Texas.

A graduate of the American University Washington College of Law, Sklaire previously shared the duties of running the Northern Virginia office with Laura Foote Reiff, who stepped down from that role this year.

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A native of Lynchburg, Cardwell retained his position as chair of the Woods Rogers board in 2022 when the firm merged with Norfolk’s Vandeventer Black.

Cardwell, who also became the first Black president of the Virginia Bar Association that same year, continues to lead the state’s fifth largest law firm, which shortened its name from Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black back to the original Woods Rogers last year.

After graduating from the University of Virginia, where he played football, Cardwell earned his law degree at Washington and Lee University.

Following graduation, he worked as deputy associate chief counsel with the U.S. Department of Labor Benefits Review Board before joining Woods Rogers in 1991.

In his practice, Cardwell advises executives and human resources managers on issues including harassment, sexual orientation and gender identity, retaliation and discrimination. He also provides guidance on topics including workforce reductions, unfair competition and union-organizing campaigns.

This year, the Virginia Law Foundation inducted Cardwell, along with 25 other lawyers, into the 2025 Fellows Class. He also was among several NAACP Roanoke Citizens of the Year Awards winners in May.

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