1970s Class Notes
1970
Robert W. Benjamin serves on the board of directors of FCCI Mutual Insurance Company, a large, Florida-based, regional property and casualty insurance company writing policies in 15 states.
Kenneth M. Greene was selected for North Carolina Super Lawyers 2014 in banking law. He is director and shareholder with Carruthers & Roth in Greensboro, where he focuses his practice on commercial finance, banking, and bankruptcy. He is past president and current fellow of the American College of Commercial Finance Lawyers and serves on two task forces established by the business law section of the ABA—one to create a model agreement governing the control of account deposits, and another to create model agreements for first and second intercreditor liens.
Lynn Groseclose retired from his active medical malpractice defense practice at the end of 2013. He will continue as a mediator. He has been recognized in Florida Super Lawyers since 2006, has been rated by Martindale as AV pre-eminent, and listed as a Tampa Bay top lawyer. “I’m grateful for the education UVA provided and the career it engendered,” he writes.
Charles H. Majors was honored by the Danville, Va., Kiwanis Club as Danville’s Citizen of the Year. After 20 years of law practice, he served for 20 years as president and chief executive officer of American National Bank and Trust Company, a $1.3 billion bank serving southern Virginia and northern North Carolina, and is currently executive chairman of the bank. He served as chairman of the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the Virginia Bankers Association, and recently completed a term as president of the Federal Reserve Board’s Community Depository Institutions Advisory Council. 1971Thomas H. Bottini is managing attorney and chief representative of Armstrong Teasdale’s office in Shanghai, which celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2014. Bottini opened the firm’s China office there in 1994.
The Honorable Louis A. Sherman retired as an active judge of the circuit court of the City of Norfolk, effective January 1, 2013. He continues to serve as a retired/recalled judge. He is married to Carol M. Sherman and is the father of sons Eric and Scott, who graduated from the UVA Schools of Medicine in 2002 and the McIntire School of Commerce in 2001, respectively.
Mark E. Sullivan received the distinguished service award from the Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel at the ABA annual meeting in August. He is principal of Sullivan & Tanner in Raleigh, N.C., and frequently speaks at family and military law programs and lectures at the Army JAG School and the Naval Justice School.
1972
Terrance M. Miller is listed in Best Lawyers 2014 as Columbus, Ohio’s professional malpractice law-defendants lawyer of the year. He is with Porter Wright.
Gregory L. Murphy was selected for Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers 2014 in business litigation. He obtained a sanctions award of over $800,000, the highest ever, against counsel and plaintiff in Fairfax Circuit Court; the petition for appeal was denied. Previously, the largest sanction award was $272,000. He is a partner with Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease, and a member of the litigation group.
Federal judge Arthur J. Schwab of the U.S. District Court, Western District of Pennsylvania, received an honorary membership in the Federal Bar Association Western Pennsylvania Chapter on November 6 in recognition of his judicial accomplishments. He also received the 2012 Conflict Resolution Day Award from the Mediation Council of Western Pennsylvania for his leadership and support of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program. Schwab was chair of the Court’s ADR Committee from February 2004 to October 2013.
Since the ADR program began, the western district has reduced the number of cases pending for three or more years by 63 percent and reduced the number of motions not decided within six months by 83 percent. Recent statistics issued by the administrative office of the U.S. courts now place the Western District of Pennsylvania in the top 9.5 percent of federal courts with respect to the length of time for civil cases to resolve and the amount of time to decide civil case motions.
1973
G. Franklin Flippin has been named to the Super Lawyers Business Edition in business/corporate law. He was also recognized in Virginia Business as being among Virginia’s legal elite in 2013 in the area of business law. He is a partner with Gentry Locke Rakes & Moore in Roanoke, where he focuses his practice on business planning.
Howard L. Meyers received the Dennis H. Replansky Memorial Award for his contributions to legal, civic, religious, and other charitable causes at the Philadelphia Bar Association business law section annual dinner in February. He is a senior partner in the business and finance practice of Morgan Lewis in Philadelphia, Pa.
Robert S. Mueller III has joined Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr as partner in Washington, D.C. He was previously director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a job he began one week before the attacks on September 11. His practice at WilmerHale is focused on investigations, crisis management, privacy, and cybersecurity.
Mary Alexander Seddon Lee Stapp LL.M. passed away on October 27, 2013, at the age of 86. She was a longtime resident of Montgomery, Ala. Throughout her life she fulfilled a commitment to study, teach, and practice law. As an assistant attorney general and chief legal counsel for the Alabama Department of Human Resources she argued cases at all levels, including before the Supreme Court of the United States.After receiving her law degree at the University of Alabama School of Law, she received her master’s in law at Virginia. She went on to study international law at Georgetown University, dispute resolution at Emory University School of Law, and English legal history at the London School of Economics.
In 1981 the Southern Women’s Archives presented Stapp with the Alabama Women Achievers’ Award in recognition of her contribution toward elevating the status of Alabama women. In 2013 the women’s section of the Alabama State Bar presented her with the Maud McLure Kelly Award for “being a pioneer for the rights of children and the elderly and a tireless leader in mentoring young women in the legal profession.”
1974
Douglas M. Branson LL.M. notes that the fourth edition of Understanding Corporate Law was published in 2013, and his newest book, Greatness in the Shadows: Larry Doby and the Integration of the American League, will be published later this year. Branson is the W. Edward Sell Chair in Law at the University of Pittsburgh.
C. Wilson DuBose was listed in Georgia Legal Leaders and Georgia Super Lawyers 2013 in business litigation, construction litigation, and alternative dispute resolution. He was also elected to the board of directors of Common Cause Georgia. He practices with DuBose Law Group LLC of Madison and Atlanta, Ga.
Claire G. Gastanaga received the 2013 Bernard D. Mayes Award given by the Serpentine Society in honor of her work on LGBT rights. Gastanaga is the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and has more than 30 years of experience in legal and government relations at the federal, state, and local levels. The award is named for the former assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for his lifetime support of LGBT students at the University of Virginia.
Nathalie Gilfoyle has been elected to the board of directors of the National Veterans Legal Services Program, which is dedicated to ensuring that veterans and active-duty military personnel receive the governmental benefits to which they are entitled under the law. She is general counsel to the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C., and also serves as a commissioner on the D.C. Access to Justice Commission by appointment of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Frank E. Riggs, Jr. has been named a fellow in the American College of Construction Lawyers. He is a partner with Troutman Sanders in Atlanta, Ga., where he focuses his practice exclusively on construction law. He is listed in Best Lawyers 2014 in construction law, litigation-construction and in Super Lawyers 2014 in construction/surety.
Jay T. Waldron has been elected chair of the board of directors of Oregon Health & Science University, which provides health care throughout the state and is Portland’s largest employer. He has served on the board for six years. Waldron is a shareholder with Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt in Portland, where he practices environmental and energy law and represents clients in trial and appellate courts.
John F. Wymer III opened the Atlanta, Ga., office of Denver-based Sherman & Howard in February 2013. He is a fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers and has been listed in Best Lawyers since 1994.
1975
W. Stuart Dornette is listed in Ohio Super Lawyers 2014 in business litigation and was named a local litigation star in Benchmark Litigation 2014 in general commercial and securities law. He is a partner with Taft Stettinius & Hollister in Cincinnati.
Don P. Martin is listed in Best Lawyers 2014 in commercial litigation, legal malpractice law-defendants, litigation-banking and finance, and litigation-real estate. He is also named in Southwest Super Lawyers 2014 in business litigation. He is a partner with Quarles & Brady in Phoenix, Ariz., where he handles complex commercial litigation, including professional liability, real estate and securities litigation, and administrative hearings.
1976
Peter E. Broadbent, Jr. was reappointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell to the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library Board of Regents. The Fredericksburg museum is the largest repository in the country for artifacts and documents related to the fifth president. Broadbent has significant experience with Virginia organizations focused on history and genealogy. He serves on the Library of Virginia board and the Virginia Commission for the Bicentennial of the American War of 1812, is former president of both the Virginia Genealogical Society and the Genealogical Research Institute of Virginia, and is a vice president of the James Monroe Memorial Foundation. He is a partner with Christian & Barton in Richmond, where he focuses his practice on intellectual property and communications law.
Daniel J. Hoffheimer has been listed in Ohio Super Lawyers 2014 in estate planning and probate. He is a partner with Taft Stettinius & Hollister in Cincinnati.
Michael Leech was elected a member of the American Law Institute. He is a full-time neutral mediator/arbitrator, a distinguished fellow of the International Academy of Mediators, and president-elect of the Association of Attorney-Mediators. His office is in Chicago, Ill.
Elizabeth A. Ritvo was honored by Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly at an awards ceremony in October as one of their Top Women of the Law. She is a partner with Brown Rudnick in Boston, where she focuses her practice on litigation and arbitration. She is listed in Best Lawyers 2014 in First Amendment law.
Donald J. Shuller has been listed in Ohio Super Lawyers 2014 and Best Lawyers 2014 in real estate law. He is a partner with Vorys, Sater, Seymour and Pease in Cincinnati, where he is a member of the finance, energy, and real estate group.
F. Bradford Stillman retired from his position as a U.S. magistrate judge for the eastern district of Virginia. He now serves as a mediator with the McCammon Group.
1977J. Herbie DiFonzo and his wife, Ruth Stern, have published Intimate Associations: The Law and Culture of American Families with University of Michigan Press. (See In Print.) The book explores developments in family formation that would have been unimaginable even a generation ago. DiFonzo is professor of law at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.
Michael E. Fix has been appointed chief executive officer of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., an independent, nonpartisan think tank that provides analysis, evaluation, and development of immigration, immigrant integration, and refugee policies. He is the first to serve in this position. He has been with MPI since 2005 and was most recently senior vice president, director of studies, and co-director of MPI’s National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy.
Fix concentrates his work on immigrant integration and the education of immigrant children in the U.S. and Europe, as well as citizenship policy, immigrant children and families, the effect of welfare reform on immigrants, and the impact of immigrants on the labor force in the United States. He was recently appointed to a National Research Council committee on the integration of immigrants into U.S. society that will identify gaps in existing information and propose policy options. He is a research fellow with Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany, and served on the National Academy of the Sciences Committee on redesigning U.S. naturalization tests.
Barry Kogut is listed in the 2014 Chambers and Partners International Guide to the Legal Profession and in Best Lawyers 2014 in environmental law. He is a member with Bond, Schoeneck & King in Syracuse, N.Y.
From left: David Logan ’77, Dr. Mel Urofsky ’84, Lillian BeVier, John Jeffries ’73, and U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse ’82
David Logan, dean of the Roger Williams University School of Law and a media law scholar, organized a symposium that took place in February entitled “Reassessing New York Times Co. v. Sullivan: Freedom of the Press 50 Years Later.”
Distinguished lawyers, judges, journalists, and academics came to Roger Williams to reflect on the legacy of the case. They participated on two panels, one focused on legal theory and the other on journalism. All agreed that New York Times v. Sullivan defined freedom of the press more clearly than any other Supreme Court of the United States decision in modern times.
participants included UVA Law’s Dean Emeritus John Jeffries ’73 and David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus Lillian BeVier, Melvin Urofsky ’84, and U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse ’82 of Rhode Island.
1978Christopher Scott D’Angelo was a moderator and speaker at the International Corporate Counsel College in Paris in November. The ICCC, where he is on the advisory board, is a forum that addresses the most current legal issues of importance to in-house corporate counsel in Europe and internationally. D’Angelo is a contributing author to The Attorney-Client Privilege in Civil Litigation, fifth edition, published by the ABA in 2012. He is a partner and chairman of the products liability, mass claims and risk management section and the international practice group at Montgomery McCracken Walker & Rhoads based in Philadelphia, Pa., and New York City.
Constance A. Howes, executive vice president of women’s health at Care New England, has joined the Women’s Choice Award healthcare advisory board.The board is comprised of executive level health care professionals who have a deep expertise in health care issues and patient experience. Howes presides over the multidisciplinary Women's Health Council which guides program development in women's health for Care New England.
Howes was also recently elected to the board of trustees of the American Hospital Association and serves in a number of industry and civic leadership posts, including chairing the Governor’s Workforce Board and chairing Innovation Providence which is working to advance the state's knowledge economy and economic development. She was president and chief executive officer of Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island from 2002 to 2013, formerly serving as executive vice president and chief operating officer.Prior to this role, Howes was vice president and general counsel for Care New England Health System and vice president and general counsel for Women & Infants Hospital.Before joining Women & Infants, Howes practiced with Tillinghast, Collins & Graham for 17 years, primarily in the area of business law, and served as chair of the corporate department.
Blake D. Morant, dean of the Wake Forest University School of Law, has been appointed to a five-year term on the Federal Judicial Center Foundation Board by Chief Justice John Roberts. The center is the agency for continuing education of federal judges and court personnel and for policy research regarding procedures and practices in the federal court.
Hugh F. Hill writes that he “persists as an assistant professor of emergency medicine” at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and has created a new geriatric emergency medicine fellowship for Hopkins.
Ely A. Leichtling is listed in Best Lawyers 2014 in employment law-management, labor law-management, and litigation-labor and employment. He is a partner with Quarles & Brady in Milwaukee, Wis.
Charles W. Throckmorton was designated by Best Lawyers as Miami’s lawyer of the year for 2013 in bankruptcy and creditor debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law. He was also noted in Miami Daily Business Review as the most effective lawyer for 2013 in the field of bankruptcy. These honors reflect results he achieved in representing the largest group of creditor victims in litigation arising out of Scott Rothstein’s $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. He practices business bankruptcy litigation with Kozyak Tropin & Throckmorton.
