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1980s Class Notes

1980

John F. Brenner is listed in New Jersey Super Lawyers 2013 in class action/mass torts, personal injury defense: products, civil litigation defense. He is a partner in the health effects litigation practice group with Pepper Hamilton in Princeton, and focuses his practice on the defense of complex products liability and mass tort cases against pharmaceutical and medical device manufacturers.  

Perrin R. Love is listed in Best Lawyers 2013 in commercial litigation, eminent domain and condemnation law, and litigation-intellectual property. He is a shareholder and director with Clyde Snow in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Allen McCallie has been awarded the highest honor given by the Trust for Public Land, the nation’s second largest land conservation organization. The Douglas P. Ferguson Award is given for outstanding service and extraordinary commitment to conserving land for people across America. An attorney with Miller & Martin in Chattanooga, Tenn., McCallie has long focused his practice on real estate, nonprofit organizations, conservation law, and public and private nonprofit development initiatives. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, “His blending of professional legal work in these areas along with his advocacy for land stewardship, volunteerism and civic advancement has paid off in an array of civic ventures.” For 15 years McCallie has focused much of his volunteer and legal work on arranging the land acquisitions and conservation easements that have become integral parts of our newer outdoor public spaces.

Richard E. Moore was recently selected by the Virginia General Assembly as a juvenile and domestic relations district court judge. He serves in the 16th Judicial District of Virginia and sits in Albemarle, Greene, Louisa, and Orange Counties.

Prior to being named a judge, Moore was a career state prosecutor for 26 years and directed the UVA Prosecution Clinic at the Law School for 14 years. After graduating from Law School he clerked for Justice George M. Cochran ’36 of the Virginia Supreme Court. He was then in private practice for several years in Staunton before going into prosecution. He and his wife, Nancy, have lived in Charlottesville since 1996. They have two grown daughters.

W. David Paxton was listed in Super Lawyers Business Edition 2012 in employment & labor law. Virginia Living listed him as a Legal Eagle 2012 in employment law-individuals, employment law-management, labor law-management, and litigation-labor & employment. He is named in Best Lawyers 2013 and is listed as a Top Rated Lawyer for  labor and employment and commercial litigation in The American Lawyer. He is a partner with Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore in Roanoke.

George A. Somerville served as a member of the faculty of the Virginia State Bar’s Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Course from 2009-12. He was listed in Virginia Living magazine’s Best Lawyers 2012 in administrative/appellate practice and was named in Best Lawyers 2013 in appellate law. He is senior counsel with Troutman Sanders in Richmond.

1981

Christine Hughes announced her engagement to W. Sterling Wall, a coastal geologist from Chilmark, Martha’s Vineyard. “He didn’t go to UVA,” she writes, “but aside from that, he’s pretty much perfect.” Classmates Karen Geiger, Tina Ravitz, and Mike Clarke have met him and approve, she reports.

1982

BassettJustice James P. Bassett was sworn in as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New Hampshire in July. He was nominated by Governor John Lynch, who noted that Bassett would bring a new perspective to the high court, never before having served as a judge. Bassett argued many appeals to the Supreme Court in his 27 years with Orr & Reno in Concord, where he was a senior litigator and shareholder specializing in complex commercial and civil litigation, First Amendment issues, and land use cases.

Thomas C. Frongillo joined Fish & Richardson in Boston, Mass., as a principal in the commercial litigation group. He was previously with Weil, Gotshal & Manges. Frongillo represents corporations and individuals in white-collar criminal matters involving alleged environmental law violations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, securities fraud, health care fraud, misappropriation of intellectual property, computer fraud, and public corruption.

William H. Hines was selected to reign as Rex 2013, King of Carnival at New Orleans’ Mardi Gras. The honor is a great one for a native New Orleanian steeped in Mardi Gras tradition. In addition to working on the celebration, public service is an implicit requirement of anyone to be considered for Rex. Hines serves on a number of organizations and boards that benefit the region. He is managing partner of Jones Walker and a member of the business & commercial transactions practice group.

James S. Ryan III was named a Super Lawyer in Texas Monthly magazine and a Best Lawyer in Dallas by D magazine in 2012. He is listed in Best Lawyers 2013 in corporate law and mergers and acquisitions law. He is a partner with Jackson Walker, where he focuses his practice on corporate and securities, health care, and life sciences and medical technology.

StoneThatcher A. Stone left the practice of law to start an insurance company after 25 years working throughout the world as an aircraft finance lawyer. In 2010 he returned to the law as a litigator focusing on aviation-related matters. He is one of the few AV-rated lawyers in New York City who deals with non-crash aviation personal injury for plaintiffs.

After several victories in the U.S. Courts of Appeal and in the District Courts, Stone was named one of the New York area’s best lawyers and has been featured in the American Lawyer, the Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times, as well as New York magazine in a supplement featuring AV-rated lawyers only. “And to think I spent all those years drafting indentures and aircraft mortgages,” he writes. He has an office in Rockefeller Center.

TruittRaymond G. Truitt has been named co-chair of the International Council of Shopping Centers 2013 U.S. Law Conference to be held in San Diego, Calif. He is managing partner of finance and operations for Ballard Spahr and focuses his practice in Baltimore, Md., on commercial real estate financing, leasing, development, and restructuring. He is listed in Best Lawyers 2013 in real estate law.

Elizabeth Turrell Farrar reports that she had a wonderful time reconnecting with classmates at the celebration of the capital campaign. She enjoyed taking advantage of the panels, especially one on governance in higher education, which, she writes, was interesting not only from the UVA perspective but also in relation to what she’s seen in her hometown of Columbus, Ohio. The trip also provided the chance to see her son, Bill, who is a first-year student.

U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat, won his first re-election bid to retain his seat to represent Rhode Island. He defeated Republican challenger B. Barrett Hinckley.

1983

KnopikChristopher S. Knopik received the George C. Carr Memorial Award for 2012 bestowed by the Tampa Bay Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. The award, named for the late U.S. District Judge, recognizes excellence in federal practice and exceptional service to the federal bar. He is listed in Florida Super Lawyers 2013 in personal injury plaintiff: general, and personal injury plaintiff: medical malpractice, business litigation. Knopik is a founding member of Knopik Deskins Law Group in Tampa.

Robert P. Latham was named a Super Lawyer in 2012 in Texas Monthly magazine. He is a partner with Jackson Walker in Dallas and Houston.

John E. Osborn’s article, “Can I Tell You the Truth? A Comparative Perspective on Regulating Off-Label Scientific and Medical Information,” which appeared in the Summer 2010 issue of the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics, was cited by the majority in the United States v. Caronia (Second Circuit, 2012) in rejecting the government’s prosecution of a pharmaceutical sales representative on First Amendment grounds.

John M. Sheftall is listed in Georgia Super Lawyers 2013 in estate planning & probate and in Best Lawyers 2013 in litigation-trusts & estates and trusts & estates. He is a partner with Hatcher, Stubbs, Land, Hollis & Rothschild in Columbus, where he focuses his practice on fiduciary law, including estate planning, estate administration, and fiduciary litigation.

Tim St.ClairTim St.Clair joined Nexsen Pruet as a member practicing in the Greenville, S.C., office. St.Clair is a veteran intellectual property litigator in South Carolina and across the nation. His approach is to “navigate” businesses and individuals through copyrights, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets, from conception to realization and, if necessary, to dispute resolution. His practice focuses not only on litigation of IP disputes, but also on IP dispute avoidance, as well as applications, registrations, and IP portfolio strategies.

1984

Michael Crehan has joined the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority as associate general counsel. He will work on real estate and construction aspects of MWAA’s project to extend Metro to Dulles Airport and beyond.

K.C. Green is listed in Ohio Super Lawyers 2013 in personal injury defense: products and civil litigation defense, health care. He is also listed in Best Lawyers 2013 in mass tort litigation/class actions-defendants and mass tort litigation/class actions-product liability litigation. He is a partner with Ulmer Berne in Cincinnati.

John Hutson has retired from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Corps and is working for the Army as a civilian attorney in Zama-shi, Japan.

John Laskey has joined the Marlton, N.J., office of Stark & Stark as a shareholder.

Thomas G. McNeill was listed in Chambers USA, Best Lawyers, and Michigan Super Lawyers for 2012. McNeill is a member and practice department manager for commercial litigation and alternative dispute resolution with Dickinson Wright in Detroit where he focuses his practice in the areas of class action, commercial & business litigation, gaming, mergers & acquisitions, and securities.

John Ragosta appeared at the Virginia Festival of the Book on March 21 to discuss his new book: Religious Freedom: Jefferson’s Legacy, America’s Creed (see In Print). He also appeared at Colonial Williamsburg in April as part of their Religion Month, to discuss his first book: Wellspring of Liberty: How Virginia’s Religious Dissenters Helped to Win the American Revolution & Secured Religious Liberty. Ragosta is currently a visiting assistant professor of history at Hamilton College in upstate New York.

Last year Willis P. Whichard LL.M., S.J.D. ’94 was elected one of three public members of the board of directors of the Federation of State Humanities Councils. He is a member with Moore & Van Allen in Morrisville, N.C., where he focuses his practice on appellate litigation.

1985

Mark E. Baker has opened Baker Law in Reston, Va. His practice concentrates on labor/employment and general corporate representation.

Rebecca Lee Wiggs has received the Lawyer Citizenship Award from the Mississippi Bar. Among her many volunteer leadership roles, she leads attorneys and legal staff in their work for Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build program and has been chair of the Red Beans and Rice Festival for Stewpot Community Services, which offers food, clothing, shelter, childcare, mentoring, and other programs to those in need. She has served on the board of New Life for Women, a secondary treatment center for women with drug and alcohol issues, and currently serves on the board of directors for the Mississippi Economic Council’s M.B. Swayze Educational Foundation. Wiggs is an attorney with Watkins & Eager in Jackson, where she specializes in civil trial work.

Steve M. Pharr has been named in Best Lawyers 2013 in construction law and litigation. He is also listed in North Carolina Super Lawyers 2013 in construction law and is a North Carolina top rated lawyer in construction law. He founded Pharr Law in Winston-Salem in 2000.

Christopher J. Winton was listed in West Virginia Super Lawyers 2012 for estate planning and probate and in Best Lawyers 2012 for his work in trusts and estates. He is the managing member of Ray, Winton & Kelley in Charleston.

1986

Peter Beer LL.M. is one of six plaintiffs in Beer vs. United States, which has reached the Supreme Court. It is a claim on behalf of federal judges that seeks relief from congressional action that deprived federal judges of cost of living adjustments granted to all other federal employees.

Eileen Brumback has been named chairman of the board for Dress for Success Worldwide, an international not-for-profit organization that provides professional attire, tools for career development, and support to help disadvantaged women gain economic independence and thrive in the workplace and in life. Brumback is senior vice president and general counsel at GE Capital Real Estate, headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., which partners with Dress for Success. She leads GE’s company-wide pro bono efforts and volunteer work for the program, and has served on the Dress for Success Worldwide board of directors since 2011.

Patrick Gardner is president and board member of Young Minds Advocacy Project, a not-for-profit organization he founded in 2012 that works to improve access to good mental health care for low-income young people with serious needs and to reform mental health systems so they are more responsive and accountable to the young people and families they serve. YMAP uses policy analysis, program evaluations, legal strategies, and public education to improve the mental health system and make it more effective, particularly for youth. Founded in the San Francisco Bay area, the organization has initiatives and cases throughout the West. Gardner was previously with the National Center for Youth Law.

HatchLawrence Hatch recently became managing director of the Glenmede Trust Company, where he oversees the Ohio region for the $25 billion independent wealth management firm. Glenmede Trust manages $3 billion in assets with 25 professionals in its Cleveland-area office.

Susan P. Liemer started the Legal Writing Prof Blog in 2005, which she continues to write with colleagues. The ABA Journal included it in its list of top 100 “blawgs” for 2012. The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin also reported on the blog on December 28. You can check it out at http://www.typepad.lawprofessor/legalwriting. Liemer is professor of law and director of lawyering skills at Southern Illinois University School of Law in Carbondale.

Jenny Shulbank heads the labor and employment practice group for Exelon Business Services Company in Philadelphia. She lives in Swarthmore, Pa., with her husband and two daughters.

Jeffrey Standen has been named dean of the Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University. He was previously the Van Winkle Melton professor and associate dean for faculty at Williamette University College of Law in Salem, Ore.

Kenneth Williams, professor of law at South Texas College of Law, has been selected as a Fulbright specialist and will teach “U.S. Criminal Justice and Legal System” at the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil. The Fulbright organization selects an elite group of educators each year to teach in foreign countries as part of an effort to promote mutual understanding and respect between the U.S. and other countries. The course will be taught for four weeks beginning in mid-May, which is in the winter semester for the students.

1987

Scott C. Oostdyk was awarded the John C. Kenny Pro Bono Award by the Richmond Bar Association. He is a partner with McGuireWoods in Richmond and was selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers 2013 in commercial, bet-the-company, and environmental litigation.

1988

CooperJohn M. Cooper is listed in Virginia Super Lawyers 2013 for personal injury law. He is a founding partner of Cooper Hurley in Norfolk, where he focuses on personal injury law and litigation involving car, truck, train, and motorcycle accidents.

Kelley Coyner was unanimously appointed executive director of the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission (NVTC). Board members praised Coyner’s long record of building regional partnerships, her expertise in transportation, and her management and leadership achievements. Coyner most recently served as chief of staff to the National Capital Region’s Senior Policy Group on homeland security and emergency management. She brought together hundreds of stakeholders to develop a strategic plan that guided the investment of federal homeland security in transportation, emergency response, and terrorism prevention.

Harry M. Johnson III was awarded the John C. Kenny Pro Bono Award by the Richmond Bar Association. Johnson was named a Leader in the Law in 2012 by Virginia Lawyers Weekly and was elected chair of the board of governors of the Virginia Bar Association. He is a partner with Hunton & Williams in Richmond, where he concentrates his practice on environmental litigation and trial work.

James F. WilliamsJames F. Williams was honored with the Outstanding Mentor Award given by the King County Bar Association Young Lawyers Division in the Seattle area. Committed to helping young lawyers for years, he was one of the founders of the Washington State Bar Association’s Leadership Institute, which recruits, trains, and develops attorneys in the state. Williams is a partner in the litigation practice of Perkins Coie.

Lisa Wilson Edwards was appointed in March 2011 to serve as an administrative appeals judge on the administrative review board by former Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis.In this role, Edwards serves on a panel responsible for issuing final agency decisions for the Secretary in cases arising under a wide range of worker protection laws that include environmental, transportation and securities whistleblower protection, H-1B immigration provisions, and federal construction and service contracts.

Previously, Edwards was an appellate attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice for 19 years. She assisted the U.S. Solicitor General in the preparation of cases litigated in the U.S. Supreme Court and advised the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights on positions taken by the United States in civil rights matters. From 2007-09 she was a Commissioner with the Human Rights Commission in Montgomery Co., Md. In 2010 Lisa served as Deputy Associate Counsel for Personnel in the Office of Presidential Personnel at the White House. She lives in Potomac with her husband, Robert H. Edwards, Jr., and their children, ages 16 and 14.

1989

Dane H. Butswinkas was inducted as a fellow into the American College of Trial Lawyers in November. Fellowship is extended only to experienced trial lawyers who have mastered advocacy and those whose legal careers reflect the highest standards of professionalism, ethics, civility, and collegiality. He is listed in Best Lawyers 2013 in commercial litigation and white-collar criminal defense and was named in Washington D.C. Super Lawyers 2012 in civil litigation defense and Chambers USA 2012 in litigation: general commercial for the District of Columbia. Butswinkas is a partner with Williams & Connolly, where he focuses his practice on trial and arbitration work.

Harry Clark is now head of the international trade and compliance group at Orrick in Washington, D.C.

David N. Cohan was listed in Virginia Living as a Legal Eagle 2012 in copyright and trademark law and is named in Best Lawyers 2013 in these areas as well. He is a partner and member of the banking & finance practice group with Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore in Roanoke.

Lisa Steen Proctor has a blog, www.we-never.com, where you can read about her adventures; every week for one year she and a friend aim to do something new and blog about the experiences.

WallJames D. Wall was named in Best Lawyers as Greensboro Corporate Law Lawyer of the Year for 2012 and is currently listed as a Legal Elite in Business North Carolina. He is also recognized in North Carolina Super Lawyers 2013 in the areas of health care and business/corporate law. He is a founding partner with Wall Esleeck Babcock in Winston-Salem.  

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