It’s little wonder Goodwyn’s classmates at Southampton High School handed him the “most likely to succeed” superlative. Quarterback of the football team, Goodwyn was also president of the student body and valedictorian.

After high school, Goodwyn headed to Harvard, where he played football and ran track. An economics major, Goodwyn graduated magna cum laude.

After earning his law degree at the University of Virginia, Goodwyn worked in private practice in Norfolk. In 1995, he became the first Black judge appointed to the Chesapeake General District Court.

Goodwyn stayed in that role for two years, then served as a judge of the Chesapeake Circuit Court for a decade.

In 2007, then-Gov. Tim Kaine appointed Goodwyn to the Virginia Supreme Court. In 2021, fellow justices tapped Goodwyn to be chief justice.

Earlier this year, Goodwyn announced plans to retire on Jan. 1, 2026. During its annual meeting in January, the Virginia Bar Association gave the judge the Gerald L. Baliles Distinguished Service Award.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

Before entering academia, Wilson clerked for a federal district court judge and practiced for 13 years in both the private and public sectors. For six years, she served as an assistant U.S. attorney. She also worked as assistant attorney general for the state of Georgia for four years.

Dean of Washington and Lee’s law school since 2022, Wilson writes and teaches about criminal procedure, focusing on the Fourth Amendment, the Sixth Amendment and prosecutors. Previously, she was dean at the University of Tennessee’s Winston College of Law. Earlier, at the University of Kansas School of Law, Wilson served as associate dean for academic affairs and director of diversity and inclusion.

Wilson is the immediate past president of the Association of American Law Schools.

At the University of Georgia, Wilson played on the 1986 Southeastern Conference championship women’s golf team. After earning a journalism degree in Athens, Wilson stuck with UGA for law school.

U.S. News & World Report ranked Washington and Lee’s law school 36th in its 2025 Best Law Schools list.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

In January, Sands Anderson announced Geiger would serve as president of the firm’s three-person board. He has sat on the board since 2018.

Since joining the firm in 1998, Geiger has shaped his practice to focus on business litigation, eminent domain, legal ethics discipline and legal malpractice.

In May, Sands Anderson announced it had completed its merger with Frieden Seery Nuckols & Hahn, a real estate, corporate and estate planning firm in Virginia Beach. Following the merger, Sands Anderson had more than 80 lawyers working at six offices in Richmond, Williamsburg, Christiansburg, Virginia Beach, Fredericksburg and Durham, North Carolina.

Geiger earned his undergraduate and law degrees from William & Mary.

INTERESTING PLACE I’VE TRAVELED: As the son of a U.S. Air Force pilot, I lived and traveled throughout the United States and Europe.

FAVORITE TEAM: I support the Richmond Kickers, which is one of the oldest continuously operating professional soccer clubs in the United States.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

White joined McGuireWoods’ government investigations and white-collar litigation practice in 2022. The following year, he was named the Tysons office managing partner.

White was one of five civilians who sat on an independent review panel that examined Fort Hood’s command climate and culture. In 2020, he and the other members testified before the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel.

A West Point graduate, White served in the U.S. Army for five years. He continued in the Army Reserves while at Pepperdine University’s law school, where he was editor-in-chief of the Pepperdine Law Review.

White serves on numerous boards, including those of Pepperdine’s law school, James Madison University and the National Military Family Association.

He was a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. Previously, White clerked for Alito at the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 2021, White ran in the Republican primary for Virginia attorney general but lost.

WHAT PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN ABOUT ME: I speak Spanish. My wife is Costa Rican, and I’ve spent a lot of time in Latin America.

FIRST JOB: Screenwriter for MTV, writing public service announcements

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

In 2024, Williams Mullen tapped Fowler to serve a fourth three-year term as the president and CEO of the state’s second-largest law firm, which employs 450 people, including more than 200 attorneys in Virginia.

Last year, the firm experienced double-digit percentage growth in revenue, bringing in $195.5 million in 2024. Fowler attributes its success partly to strong demand for corporate litigation and merger and acquisition work, as well as an 8% increase in attorney headcount.

A graduate of the University of Virginia and its law school, Fowler joined Williams Mullen more than 30 years ago. Through the years, his clients have included colleges and universities, health care systems and insurance companies.

Fowler sits on the boards of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, as well as on the executive committee of RVA757 Connects. He teaches law classes at the University of Richmond as an adjunct professor.

FIRST JOB: Making tires at the Goodyear plant in Danville

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

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.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

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.

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.

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.”

Return to the full list of this category’s recipients.