Send Us Your News
To submit a class note, email us or submit mail to UVA Lawyer, University of Virginia School of Law, 580 Massie Road, Charlottesville, VA 22903. Please send your submissions no later than Aug. 1 for inclusion in the next issue.
1990
James H. Barker III is in his 34th year at Latham & Watkins in Washington, D.C., where he practices communications and national security law. Barker lives in Alexandria, Va., and writes that he has two kids in graduate school, three in college and a high school freshman. “All is well!”
Stan Perry is the founding partner of the Houston office of Taylor Wellons Politz & Duhe, a law firm with offices in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Covington, and Lafayette, La., and Madison, Miss.
1991
After 33 years as a trial attorney, Tim McEvoy was elected by the Virginia General Assembly to serve as a circuit court judge in the 19th Judicial Circuit (Fairfax County). Before taking the bench, McEvoy served as a state and federal prosecutor and was the founder and managing member of his own business litigation firm. He is a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.
1993
Craig W. Sampson was named a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, a national organization of leading family law practitioners recognized by the bench and bar for their knowledge, skill and integrity. Sampson is president of Barnes & Diehl in Richmond, Va., and a co-author of the legal treatise “Family Law: Theory, Practice and Forms,” part of the Virginia Practice Series (2025 edition).
Magill ’95 Named Dean of Georgetown Law
M. Elizabeth “Liz” Magill ’95, a former UVA Law vice dean, was named dean of the Georgetown University Law Center. Magill will assume her new role Aug. 1.
She previously served as the University of Pennsylvania’s ninth president, executive vice president and provost of UVA, and dean of Stanford Law School, a role she took on after serving on the Law School faculty from 1997 to 2012.
“As an alumna and former faculty member, Liz Magill is part of the UVA Law family. As a student, she was top of her class and known for her collegiality and support of others, including receiving the Law School’s highest citizenship honor at graduation. As a graduate, she was the first Virginia alum ever to clerk for Justice Ginsburg. As a faculty member, she was a mentor to countless students and colleagues — just as she has been for me since my first year in law school, when she was my Constitutional Law professor,” said UVA Law Dean Leslie Kendrick ’06, who also served on the faculty with Magill for four years. “The entire Georgetown community will benefit from her dedication to serving others and pursuing excellence.”
At Virginia, Magill was the Joseph Weintraub-Bank of America Distinguished Professor of Law and the Elizabeth D. and Richard A. Merrill Professor, and she currently serves as David and Mary Harrison Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus. Magill taught administrative law, constitutional law, food and drug law, and seminars in constitutional structure and administrative law.
In an interview about her time at UVA as she was preparing to leave for Stanford, Magill reflected about her luck in joining the Law School as a “rookie” professor.
“The community here has made me the best scholar, teacher and citizen that I could be,” Magill said. “When I was just starting out as a scholar, many senior faculty members took seriously the work I was doing, and they helped me to see how to make it better.”
Magill is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the American Law Institute. She has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, held a fellowship in the Law and Public Affairs Program at Princeton University, and was the Thomas Jefferson visiting professor at Downing College, Cambridge University.
A native of Fargo, North Dakota, Magill received her undergraduate degree in history from Yale University, then worked as a senior legislative assistant for energy and natural resources for U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota. She left Capitol Hill to go to law school at UVA, where she was an articles development editor of the Virginia Law Review and received several awards, including the Margaret G. Hyde Award, the Jackson and Walker Award for Academic Achievement, the Mary Claiborne and Roy H. Ritter Scholarship, and the Food and Drug Law Institute Scholarship.
After law school, Magill clerked for Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III ’72 of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
—Mary Wood
1996
Damian D. Capozzola continues to run his Los Angeles-based civil litigation practice, representing plaintiffs and defendants, with a focus on business litigation, employment law and personal injury. He wrote that he is especially proud of a substantial personal injury settlement for a Navy sailor whose kidney problems were misdiagnosed.
Rebecca Edwards LL.M. was appointed to New Zealand’s Court of Appeal in February. Edwards was admitted to the bar in the Cook Islands in 2010 and subsequently represented the respondents in the first two appeals from the Cook Islands to the Privy Council. She was appointed a high court judge in June 2015.
1997
Justin Savage, the global co-chair of Sidley Austin’s environmental health and safety team, received the 2025 Law360 MVP Award, which recognizes leading lawyers worldwide distinguished by their successes in high-stakes litigation, complex global matters and record-breaking deals. This is Savage’s third Law360 MVP Award for Environmental Law, having received the recognition in 2024 and 2018.
1998
Lucas Hobbs was elected president of the Association of District Court Judges of Virginia at its annual meeting in October. He previously served as the association’s secretary and treasurer. Hobbs is a general district court judge for Virginia’s 28th Judicial District and lives in Bristol, Va., with his wife.
Neale T. Johnson was elected as a fellow of the American College of Construction Lawyers. The ACCL fellowship is extended by invitation only to practitioners, professors and judges who have mastered the practice of construction law and dispute resolution in the legal fields pertaining to the built environment. Based in Charlotte, N.C., and co-chair of the Fox Rothschild litigation department, Johnson is ranked as a leading construction lawyer in North Carolina by Chambers USA.
Alums Appointed to UVA Board of Visitors, Brown ’99 Elected Rector
Gov. Abigail Spanberger (College ’01) appointed Carlos M. Brown Jr. ’99 (College ’96), Robert G. Byron ’76 (College ’73), Elizabeth H. Hayes ’78 and Mohsin Syed ’08 (College ’02) to the UVA Board of Visitors on Jan. 17. Brown was elected rector and Victoria Harker (College ’86) was voted vice rector on Feb. 20.
“I am grateful to all of our board members for their service to the University,” UVA President Scott C. Beardsley said. “I look forward to working with Carlos Brown, Victoria Harker and the entire board to advance the best interests of the University we all love.”
Brown is executive vice president, chief administrative and projects officer, and corporate secretary of Dominion Energy, as well as president of Dominion Energy Services and corporate secretary for Dominion Energy’s board of directors. Brown is also a member of the Law School Foundation board of trustees. He previously served on the Board of Visitors from 2021-25, including as vice rector beginning in 2023.
“I am humbled and honored to have the opportunity to serve the University and the commonwealth as rector of the Board of Visitors,” Brown said. “I love this institution and I know firsthand the incredible impact UVA has on the lives of the people who live, learn and work here. I am eager to get to work alongside my fellow board members and looking forward to what we can achieve together.”
Byron is chair, co-CEO and co-founder of Blue Vista Capital Management, and sits on the firm’s management and investment committees. He has served on the UVA Health System Foundation Board and Affordable Housing Task Force, and as vice chairman of the University’s White Ruffin Byron Center for Real Estate.
Hayes is a retired equity partner at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, heading its communications practice. She has served as a trustee and board chair of St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville and the National Cathedral School in Washington, D.C., as well as a director on the UVA School of Architecture Foundation Board.
Syed is a senior adviser at WestExec Advisors. He most recently served as chief of staff to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Transportation and previously as assistant secretary for governmental affairs at the department. Prior to his confirmation, Syed served as the principal deputy assistant secretary for governmental affairs.
—Mike Fox and Bethanie Glover
1999
Riley H. Ross III has been elected president of the board of directors of the ACLU of Pennsylvania. Ross, a partner at Mincey Fitzpatrick Ross, is a long-time member of the ACLU-PA board. He previously spent 10 years as a board member of the Pennsylvania Innocence Project and was the 2023 recipient of The Honorable William F. Hall Award from The Barristers’ Association of Philadelphia. He has also served as an assistant federal public defender in Norfolk, Va.; as an attorney with Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C.; and in Philadelphia with Miller Alfano & Raspanti; Drinker Biddle & Reath; and the Tucker Law Group.
James Woodward leads Pope Flynn’s new office in Athens, Ga. Woodward focuses on public finance law, representing counties, cities, school districts, authorities, hospitals, private companies, nonprofit schools, trustee banks, lending institutions and investment banks throughout the state. He began his career at Alston & Bird, then moved to Miller & Martin, where he became a partner. He also spent 13 years as a partner with Gray Pannell & Woodward. In 2015, Gov. Nathan Deal appointed Woodward to the inaugural Partnership for Public Facilities and Infrastructure Act Guidelines Committee (Public Private Partnerships).
