Felon should get law license back, VSB says
The Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board has recommended reinstatement of a law license for K. Dennis Sisk, who lost his license in 2005 after he represented his own drug dealer in Richmond federal...
View ArticleVSB task force proposes criminal discovery reforms
A proposal to expand the minimum requirements for discovery in Virginia criminal cases is open for comment at the Virginia State Bar. Many criminal defense lawyers have argued for years prosecutors...
View ArticleContested election is VSB’s first since ’01
The national presidential election is over, but there’s another vote yet to cast. Ballots have been mailed to Virginia lawyers in the race for president-elect of the Virginia State Bar, the first such...
View ArticleAshland’s Smallenberg surrenders law license
A Hanover County lawyer with a long list of discipline complaints has agreed to surrender his license. Robert H. Smallenberg of Ashland consented to revocation with nine complaints pending against him,...
View ArticleLawyer gets suspension for stonewalling VSB
A lawyer accused of continuing to practice law despite a two-year suspension has been handed an additional two-year suspension after telling the Virginia State Bar “to go f--- themselves.”
View ArticleSupreme Court reconsiders rules on lawyer ads
Just two days before new rules on lawyer advertising in Virginia were scheduled to take effect, the Supreme Court of Virginia abruptly dropped the planned revision. In a Nov. 29 order, the court...
View ArticleMartingayle is new VSB president-elect
Virginia Beach lawyer Kevin E. Martingayle has narrowly won the vote for president-elect of the Virginia State Bar with only one-fifth of the bar casting ballots. Martingayle’s margin of victory over...
View ArticleBoard certification claims still allowed
Lawyers upset about having to remove board certification credentials from websites and other advertising materials may have prompted the Supreme Court of Virginia to abandon its publicly announced...
View ArticleJudge choices dominate legal highlights for 2012
Judges and judgeships again made headlines in Virginia legal news in 2012, with the General Assembly earning national attention with its rejection of an openly gay candidate for a general district...
View ArticleWaiving in: Supreme Court floats new rules on admission of out-of-state lawyers
Debate continues in Virginia legal circles over how the state should regulate lawyers who “waive in” to Virginia practice without taking the bar exam. Lawyers who take another state’s bar exam can gain...
View ArticleSupreme Court hears lawyer-blogger’s appeal
Lawyer-blogger Horace Hunter faced the Supreme Court of Virginia Jan. 8 in the appeal of his disciplinary case, and he said anything he wrote about his clients’ cases is absolutely protected by the...
View Article‘One-minute phone call’ subject of ethics appeal
Imagine walking around in another person’s skin, in order to understand him. Atticus Finch gave that advice to his daughter Scout, and it may have been on the minds of Virginia’s Supreme Court justices...
View ArticleAn ‘unzip’ drive: Defense bar pushing new rules for broader access to...
Weary of case-by-case skirmishing over discovery, the criminal defense bar has seized the initiative to push for broad change to the rules governing access to prosecutors’ files. Defense lawyers are...
View ArticleLawyer lost license over real estate practices
A Richmond lawyer who had a high-volume real estate practice has surrendered his law license after findings of long-time lapses in bookkeeping and registration as a settlement agent. G. Dean Foster...
View ArticleLawyer beats discipline charge
A Virginia Beach lawyer charged with misconduct by the Virginia State Bar has been exonerated by the VSB’s disciplinary board. Edward F. Halloran submitted a group of medical bills for two different...
View ArticleSupreme Court to weigh criminal discovery reform
After nine years of study and open conflict alternating with utter disregard, a proposal to liberalize criminal discovery in Virginia is now before the Virginia Supreme Court. With only three negative...
View ArticleShort call was not misconduct
A lawyer who took a telephone call from a distraught adversary did not violate the bar’s ethics rules when she did not immediately hang up, the Supreme Court of Virginia has ruled. The court’s decision...
View ArticleVirginia State Bar will need new home
The Virginia State Bar is on the lookout for a new office location. The VSB has been advised the lease for its headquarters in a Richmond office building will not be renewed when it expires in August,...
View ArticleProsecutor accepts reprimand from bar
A prosecutor accused of gathering information from a defense lawyer under false pretenses has agreed to a public reprimand to resolve a Virginia State Bar discipline charge.
View ArticleWeiner to seek VSB top post
Fairfax lawyer Edward Weiner has made what he hopes is a preemptive announcement of his bid for presidency of the Virginia State Bar. If elected, he would not become president of the bar until 2015...
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