1970s Class Notes

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1971

Alan J. Mogol of Baker Donelson was elected to the board of direc­tors of the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, a national trade association rep­resenting companies in the equipment finance sector. A shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Bal­timore office, Mogol concentrates his prac­tice in structuring and negotiating equipment finance transactions, as well as developing stan­dard equipment lease/ loan and syndication documentation.

As a longtime member of ELFA, Mogol has served on the organization’s lawyers committee and educa­tion committee. In 2016 he was named the recip­ient of ELFA’s Edward A. Groobert Award for Legal Excellence. That same year he was listed in Leasing News as one of the 25 Most Influen­tial Attorneys in Leasing and Finance. Mogol has been recognized by Best Lawyers in America in the area of equip­ment finance law since 2007 and in the area of banking and finance law since 2017. He was named the Best Lawyers - Baltimore banking and finance law Lawyer of the Year for 2017 and 2020. He is a frequent lecturer and author in the equipment financ­ing area.

The third edition of Mark E. Sullivan’s book, “The Military Divorce Handbook,” was published by the American Bar Associa­tion in May 2019 and is in its second printing. Sullivan and his wife, Teri, enjoyed trips to San Francisco; Hawaii; Charleston, S.C.; and Chicago in 2019.

Robert M. Spiller Jr. retired (again) in No­vember. Spiller’s first career was as a trial at­torney and associate chief counsel for en­forcement for the Food and Drug Administra­tion from 1971 to 2003. For his second career, Spiller served as a con­tract instructor in FDA law for new FDA em­ployees for 16 years.

Taylor Reveley ’68, president emeritus of William & Mary and former dean of its law school, and Stephen Hermann ’69 had the opportunity to reminisce in Williamsburg, Va., last fall. Reveley was the opening speaker at the Annual Meeting of the American College of Environmental Lawyers, which Herrmann founded in 2007.

1972

Larry Berger serves as an honorary trustee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where he previously acted as general counsel and secretary. Berger is also a member of the board of directors of the Philadelphia Youth Sports Collaborative.

George House was named to Business North Carolina’s Hall of Fame for environmental law. House is a partner with Brooks Pierce in Greensboro. House was also named in Best Lawyers in America 2020 for environmental law, environmental litigation, mining law, natural resources law and water law, as well as in North Carolina Super Lawyers for environmental litigation.

1974

The Virginia Bar Association inducted James M. Bowling IV of St. John, Bowling, Lawrence & Quagliana as a life member in recognition of his 40 years of continuous membership in the Virginia Bar Association.

Douglas Branson’s 24th book is forthcoming this year. “Baseball’s Turbulent Years: Drug Abuse, Labor Strife, and the Rise of Black Power” will be published by McFarland.

Claire Gastañaga, executive director of ACLU of Virginia, was named as a 2019 Leader in the Law by Virginia Lawyers Weekly.

Richard Menaker writes that after 35 years of practice at Menaker & Hermann, his firm is now affiliated with Offit Kurman in New York City. Menaker is a principal and tries commercial cases in state and federal courts, and in arbitration.

The Virginia Bar Association inducted Frederick W. Payne of Payne & Hodous as a life member in recognition of his 40 years of continuous membership.

James C. Shannon retired in May 2019. In October he was awarded the Hunter W. Martin Professionalism Award by the Bar Association of the City of Richmond, Va. The award is presented to members who, throughout their lives and careers in the law, have best exemplified the conduct and high ideals embodied in the bar’s Principles of Professionalism.

John F. Wymer III joined Thompson Hine in Atlanta. A partner in the labor and employ­ment group, Wymer represents public, private and government employers of all sizes in state and federal courts across the country, as well as before the Na­tional Labor Relations Board, Equal Employ­ment Opportunity Commission, U.S. De­partment of Labor and other administrative agencies. Wymer was named to Lawdragon’s Corporate Employment Lawyers Hall of Fame and is a fellow in the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers.

1975

Chuck Howard left Shipman & Goodwin after 38 years — the last five as general counsel — receiving both Lifetime Achievement and New England Trailblazer awards from the Connecticut Law Tribune. In September, he began work as the executive director of the International Ombudsman Association, where he continues to promote and support ombuds programs.

The Virginia Bar Association recently inducted Edward H. Mcnew Jr. of Crozet, Va., as a life member in recognition of his 40 years of continuous membership. 

Gibbons ’75, Vance ’85, Walker ’94 Elected to American Law Institute

Federal judge Julia Smith Gibbons ’75, Joyce White Vance ’85 and Helgi C. Walker ’94 were elected to the American Law Institute, the leading independent organization in the United States producing scholarly work to clarify, modernize and otherwise improve the law.

Julia Smith Gibbons ’75Gibbons has served on the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 2002. She previously served since 1983 as a judge on the U.S. District Court for the Western Dis­trict of Tennessee, includ­ing six years as chief judge. Gibbons also worked as a legal adviser to then-Gov. Lamar Alexander of Ten­nessee and in private prac­tice.

Joyce White Vance ’85Vance is a Distin­guished Professor of the Practice of Law at the Uni­versity of Alabama School of Law. From 2009 to 2017, she was U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, where she served on the Attorney General’s Advisory Com­mittee and was the co-chair of its Criminal Prac­tice Subcommittee. Before becoming a U.S. attorney, Vance served as an assis­tant U.S. attorney in Bir­mingham for 18 years. She spent 10 years as a criminal prosecutor before moving to the Appellate Division in 2002, becoming chief three years later. In Febru­ary she discussed criminal justice reform on the Law School podcast “Common Law.”

Helgi C. Walker ’94Walker is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Washington, D.C., office, where she is co-chair of the firm’s administrative law and regulatory practice group and a member of the appellate and constitutional law group. From 2010 to 2015, she was a public member of the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States, which is composed of leading authorities on administrative law. Walker worked in the White House Counsel’s Office as associate counsel to President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2003.

Professors Ashley Deeks and Deborah Hellman were also elected to the ALI.

—Mike Fox

1976

Bill Cary was selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers in America 2020 for employment law for management; labor law for management; and litigation for labor and management. He was also recognized in North Carolina Super Lawyers. Cary is a partner with Brooks Pierce in Greensboro.

S. Miles Dumville serves as chair of the Vir­ginia Bar Association’s Civil Litigation Section, vice chair of the advi­sory board for the UVA Cancer Center and president of the Edman Forest Owners Asso­ciation. He is senior counsel with Reed Smith in Richmond.

Jim Hingeley was elected commonwealth’s attorney for Albemarle County, Va., and took office Jan. 1.

James J. Lee was recog­nized by Best Lawyers as 2020 Lawyer of the Year for bankruptcy litigation in Dallas/Fort Worth. Lee is currently of counsel to Vinson & Elkins, having retired from the partnership at the end of 2018.

Donald W. Lemons re­ceived the 2019 Amer­ican Inns of Court Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award for Profession­alism and Ethics. Since 2015, Lemons has been the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Vir­ginia, where he not only presides over the court but serves as the chief administrative officer managing Virginia’s ju­dicial system. “Even as he has risen to lead the oldest Supreme Court in the United States, he has retained the values of a country lawyer,” said Kannon K. Shanmu­gam, a partner at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in Washing­ton, D.C., one of Lemons’ nominators. “He is a role model in how a judge should conduct himself from the bench. He treats everyone he en­counters with respect.”

Lemons served two terms as president of the American Inns of Court from 2010 to 2014. He was president of the John Marshall Inn from 2002 to 2004 and a master of the bench there and at the Lewis F. Powell Jr. Inn, both in Richmond. In 2008, the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple in London named him an honorary master of the bench in apprecia­tion for his part in rec­ognizing the Inn’s role in founding Jamestown and the commonwealth of Virginia.

Lemons was elected to the court by Virginia’s General Assembly in 2000. He was previously a judge on the Court of Appeals of Virginia and on the Circuit Court of the city of Richmond, where he was a pioneer in the drug court movement.

John Vering was elected a fellow of the College of Labor and Employ­ment Lawyers and was selected by Best Lawyers 2020 as lawyer of the year in labor liti­gation and employment for Kansas City, Mo.

1977

J. William Gray joined Whiteford, Taylor & Preston’s nonprofit organizations and as­sociations practice in Richmond, Va. Gray advises on the forma­tion of charities, busi­ness leagues, social welfare organizations, title-holders and other exempt entities, advis­ing them on tax re­porting, disclosure and corporate governance issues. Additionally, he advises high net worth clients in their chari­table gift planning. A fellow of the Ameri­can College of Trust & Estate Counsel, Gray is a founding director and former president of the Virginia Gift Planning Council. He recently served on the National Association of Charita­ble Gift Planners’ board of directors and is a fre­quent speaker at state and national programs on charitable giving, nonprofit formation, planned giving and compliance.

David A. Logan, dean emeritus and professor at the Roger Williams University School of Law, was appointed an adviser on the Ameri­can Law Institute’s Re­statement of the Law Third, Torts: Defama­tion and Privacy. This project is part of ALI’s ongoing revision of the second restatement and addresses torts dealing with personal and busi­ness reputation and dignity, including defa­mation, business dis­paragement and rights of privacy. Among other issues, the updates will cover the substantial body of new issues re­lating to the internet. Logan wrote that he credits UVA Law pro­fessor Lilian BeVier for igniting his inter­est in the intersection between tort law and the First Amendment that has resulted in this honor.

Roliff Purrington re­turned from trips to the Ukraine, Myanmar, Northern Iraq and Co­lombia. He also joined the Houston boutique litigation firm, Gregor Cassidy and Wynne. 1978

Christopher D’Angelo authored the chapter “The Scope and Use of The Attorney-Client Privilege in the United States and Its Applica­bility to Communica­tions in the U.S. and Abroad” in “The Attor­ney-Client Privilege in Civil Litigation: Pro­tecting and Defend­ing Confidentiality,” a seventh edition pub­lished by ABA Books. D’Angelo is chair of the business disputes and products liability prac­tice and the chair of the international prac­tice at Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, based in its Philadelphia and New York offices.

Mary Bland Love wrote that she “has retired from paying law work.” She remains of counsel with Marks Gray in Jacksonville, Fla., speaks on professionalism and conducts moot court (trial) service. Bland Love was reappointed to the Jacksonville Ethics Commission by Public Defender Charles Cofer ’77. She shared that she has “had a satisfactory career and is grateful for UVA Law’s preparation and reputation — that endure to this day!”

Blake Morant and J. Bruce RobertsonLast summer, Blake Morant, right, former dean of the George Washington University Law School, and J. Bruce Robertson LL.M. ’73, a retired justice of the Court of Appeal of New Zealand, met for the first time in Auckland. The meeting was facilitated by mutual friend Linda G. Howard ’73.

In September, GW Law unveiled Morant’s official portrait. Colleagues and friends in attendance were Ann Brown ’77, Eric Fontaine ’79, George Garrow ’79, Theodore King, Klinette Hunter Kindred and James Kurz ’76.

1979

Schiff Hardin partner Paul Dengel has worked with Chicago Volunteer Legal Ser­vices for the past 40 years.

After graduating, Dengel wanted to apply his skills to help people who needed legal as­sistance in lower-in­come communities and thought about starting a legal clinic.

At the same time, the CVLS put out a call for pro bono lawyers. Dengel realized that rather than start a clinic, Schiff Hardin attorneys could essen­tially “adopt” a CVLS clinic, staff it and do the one-on-one work they wanted to do. In 1979, lawyers volunteering at clinics was a novel idea, though it has now become a common practice.

Forty years later, other firms have adopted their own clinics and CVLS can conserve its resources by staffing their clinics with lawyers working pro bono. Dengel reports that his work on behalf of the CVLS Rogers Park Clinic has been one of the most rewarding facets of his career.

Mark Lester’s book “H. H. Asquith: Last of the Romans” was re­cently released by Lex­ington Books. The book chronicles the life of Asquith (1852–1928), the longest-serving British prime minis­ter between Lord Liv­erpool (Robert Jen­kinson) and Margaret Thatcher.

Randy Underwood was selected for inclu­sion in Best Lawyers in America 2020 for fi­nancial services regula­tion law and real estate. Underwood practices with Brooks Pierce in Greensboro, N.C.