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1980
John F. Brenner retired as the senior vice president at Becton, Dickinson and Company.
Barbara Dixon Ryan self-published a booklet titled "When Someone You Love Is Addicted To Something You Hate." In the booklet, which can be found on Amazon, Dixon Ryan asks and answers — referencing neuroscience, and her professional training and personal experience — the why and how of addiction, and what to do about it. Dixon Ryan is a Certified Family Peer Recovery Specialist and Certified Substance Abuse Counselor in Northern Virginia. She can be reached at WhenSomeoneYouLove@gmail.com.
Robert Seabolt was named to the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame Class of 2022 by Virginia Lawyers Weekly. Started in 2018, the Hall of Fame class celebrates attorneys who have made lasting marks on the legal field across the commonwealth of Virginia. Criteria for selection include career accomplishments, contributions to the profession, contributions to the development of the law, contributions to the bar and the commonwealth and efforts to increase access to justice. Seabolt is the chief operating officer of IST Management Services in Richmond.
1981
Travis Brown wrote to share his thanks to Stan Joynes and his family for hosting the unofficial 40th reunion dinner at their winery in Afton, Va. "It was a pleasure to see so many classmates assembled. I'm very grateful to have attended the Law School with such remarkable and interesting classmates," he writes.
Marc Taeymans LL.M. published the fourth revised edition of his Standard Business Contracts with Intersentia Ltd. in Cambridge, U.K.
William R. Van Buren III continues to serve as chairman and president of Kaufman & Canoles in Norfolk, Va., practicing corporate, mergers and acquisitions, and health law.
After retiring from Squire Patton Boggs at the start of 2022, C. Craig Woods started Woods Law & Dispute Resolution in Grandview Heights, Ohio.
1982
Roger T. Creager was recognized in 2021 by the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association with its Lifetime Achievement Award. Twenty years earlier, in 2001, Creager received the VTLA's Courageous Advocate Award for his leading role in defending Virginia's Collateral Source Rule in the context of personal injury claims. He is the first person to receive both awards from the VTLA. In bestowing the 2021 award, the association stated that Creager's lifetime of work has benefited the trial bar as well as thousands of clients impacted through his work with attorneys throughout Virginia. Creager and his wife, Marie F. Shoffner (M.E. í79, M.Ed. í90, Ph.D. í96), live in Richmond.
James E. Pfander’s latest book, "Cases Without Controversies: Uncontested Adjudication in Article III Courts," was published in 2021. Pfander is spending the spring semester in Lisbon at the Catholic University of Portugal, teaching the course Suing the State.
, an attorney known for his work on commercial real estate financing, leasing, development and restructuring, has been elected secretary of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, a national association of approximately 1,000 distinguished real estate lawyers.
A partner based in Ballard Spahr's Baltimore office, Truitt serves as the firm's managing partner of finance and operations, a member of the management committee's executive team and a member of its diversity council.
As ACREL secretary, Truitt continues his leadership role with the organization, having been elected last year to its board of governors. In addition to his work with ACREL, Truitt is a member of the Maryland State Bar Association and served as chair of both its Section of Real Property and the Section's Code Revision Committee. He is also a member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and acted as chair of its 2014 U.S. Law Conference.
1983
R. Bradford Bailey was recognized for his expertise in white-collar criminal defense in Best Lawyers in America. Bailey has also been repeatedly named in New England and Massachusetts Super Lawyers. His Boston-based firm, Brad Bailey Law, handles state and federal criminal matters in all courts.
Bartley J. Breinin joined Norris McLaughlin as a member of the Business Law Practice Group in New York. Breinin has served as both outside and in-house counsel for large and small companies, professional and financial services organizations, and private equity and venture capital firms. He has extensive experience in mergers and acquisitions, and has advised on hundreds of domestic and international deals, including acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures and strategic alliances.
Mark Davidson was recognized as Lawyer of the Year for closely held companies and family business law in Best Lawyers in America. He was also listed for business organizations (including LLCs and partnerships), corporate, mergers and acquisitions, securities/capital markets and tax law. Davidson was listed in North Carolina Super Lawyers for his work in business and corporate law. He practices with Brooks Pierce in Greensboro.
Julie E. Green joined Weintraub Tobin as of counsel in the corporate group after the firm's merger with Salem & Green. Based in Sacramento, Calif., Greení' practice focuses on counseling clients on business transactional, governance, securities, and merger and acquisition matters. Her clients include real estate, health care and technology companies. Since 2001, Green has served as outside general counsel to a privately held Delaware limited liability company in the real estate industry that was an SEC-reporting company from 2001-07.
Steve Hollman has spent much of the pandemic on two pro bono projects: vindicating the role of science and fact in administrative decision-making in connection with an environmental project and expanding the rights of individuals with disabilities to vote. Hollman represented Trout Unlimited in federal court in Alaska and the 9th Circuit in a challenge to an EPA decision to withdraw a Clean Water Act ban on permitting the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska, without considering the "mountain of scientific evidence showing that the mine would have a cataclysmic impact on this beautiful, unspoiled natural resource that is the spawning ground for some 40 percent of the world's sockeye salmon," he writes. "As to the second, I worked with West Virginia and Virginia to enable voters with print disabilities who cannot vote via a paper ballot to use technology already available for uniformed overseas voters to cast their ballots privately and independently like other voters, as mandated by the Americans with Disabilities Act. I found West Virginia very accommodating to this concept; Virginia took a bit more convincing. I was pleased to have this work acknowledged by the American Bar Association, which recognized my firm, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton as the recipient of its Pro Bono Publico Award for 2021, as the top law firm pro bono program in the country. My prior firm received the same recognition when I was a senior associate in its pro bono program in 1991. I am proud to be able to say that the arc of my career has bent towards justice."
Jeff Oleynik was recognized as a leading lawyer for antitrust law and bankruptcy and creditor-debtor rights/insolvency and reorganization law in Best Lawyers in America. Oleynik was included in North Carolina Super Lawyers for his work in business bankruptcy law. He practices with Brooks Pierce in Greensboro.
1984
Troutman Pepper partner David M. Carter was recognized in Best Lawyers in America. Carter practices in the areas of corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and private equity law in Richmond, Va., and Atlanta.
Troutman Pepper partner Jeffrey M. Gill was recognized in Best Lawyers in America. Gill practices in the areas of mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, finance and corporate law in Richmond, Va.
Steve Pharr was named in U.S. News ñ Best Lawyers for his work in construction litigation and construction law; in Super Lawyers North Carolina for construction law; and in Legal Elite N.C. for construction law. Pharr lives in Winston-Salem and has his own firm through which he tries cases.
The North Carolina Collection at the Durham County Library's new main library has been renamed as the Willis and Leona Whichard N.C. Collection. Willis P. Whichard LL.M., S.J.D. ’94 was the founding president of the Durham Library Foundation and currently serves on the library's board of trustees.
1985
Alums Elected to American Law Institute
Lisa S. Loo ’85 and E. Farish Percy ’91 were elected to the American Law Institute.
As vice president for legal affairs and deputy general counsel at Arizona State University, Loo focuses on special projects and initiatives, commercial transactions, procurement, real estate and immigration matters. Prior to joining ASU in 1993, Loo was in private practice for eight years. She is a member of the executive council of the National Conference of Bar Presidents and served as president of the State Bar of Arizona from 2016-17. The State Bar recognized Loo in 2008 for Outstanding Achievement in Advancing Equal Opportunity in the Profession and as the 1993 Outstanding Young Lawyer. She is a founding board member of the Arizona Asian American Bar Association.
Percy joined the University of Mississippi School of Law faculty in 2001 after practicing with the Tollison Law Firm in Oxford, Miss., for eight years. She teaches Torts, Civil Procedure II, Insurance, Evidence and Complex Litigation. She acted as the reporter for the Civil Procedure and Complex Litigation Subcommittees of the Mississippi Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Rules from 2006-2021 and offers an annual continuing legal education course to the Mississippi bar that focuses on recent developments in state civil law. While engaged in private practice, Percy concentrated in tort litigation, commercial litigation and appellate practice. She tried numerous civil cases in state and federal courts in Mississippi, and briefed and argued several appellate cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit and the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Professors Michael Doran, John Duffy, Ruth Mason, Richard Schragger and Pierre-Hugues Verdier were also elected to the American Law Institute.
—Mike Fox
Melissa Weaver was recognized as a leading lawyer for employee benefits (ERISA) law in Best Lawyers in America. Weaver practices with Brooks Pierce in Greensboro, N.C.
1986
Sue Liemer said that at a time when many classmates are thinking about their retirement path or at least getting to work from home more, she made the opposite transition. After three decades of a professor's flexible work schedule and then spring 2020 lockdown, Liemer writes she was asked to step up to a position that requires her to be in the office five full days a week. In summer 2020, she started serving as the associate dean for academic affairs at the Elon University School of Law in Greensboro, N.C. Any classmates passing through Greensboro are welcome to stop in.
Elizabeth “Liz” Espín Stern was appointed managing partner of Mayer Brown's Washington, D.C., office. Since joining the firm in 2014, Stern has held several key leadership roles. As head of the firm's Global Mobility and Migration practice, she leads a team of lawyers that helps clients establish and maintain global compliance and management programs to move executive and professional work corps across borders around the world. Notably, she has built one of the firm's most inclusive practice groups: The team is multigenerational and multilingual, and includes women, LGBTQ and ethnically diverse lawyers. Additionally, she is a member of the firm's global partnership board and serves as a co-leader of the firm's COVID-19 Global Response Team. In these roles, Stern coordinates with members of the firm's leadership, as well as lawyers across four continents and multiple disciplines.
Stern is consistently top-ranked by Chambers Global, Chambers USA, Who's Who Legal and The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers, among other national and local publications. She is a recipient of several National Law Journal awards, including Outstanding Woman Lawyer, Crisis Leadership Trailblazer and Immigration Trailblazer. She was also named a Washingtonian Top Lawyer and a Washington Business Journal Woman Who Means Business.
Goodwyn ’86 Succeeds Lemons ’76 as Chief Justice of Virginia
S. Bernard Goodwyn ’86 succeeded Donald W. Lemons ’76 as chief justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia on Jan. 1. Lemons retired from the court Feb. 1, ending a 25-year career on the bench.
The justices announced Goodwyn's election Dec. 20. Goodwyn was appointed to the state Supreme Court by Gov. Tim Kaine in 2007 to fill a vacancy and was elected by the General Assembly in 2008 and reelected in 2020. He is the second Black chief justice.
Previously, Goodwyn served as a judge of the Circuit Court for the city of Chesapeake for over 10 years and also served as a judge of the General District Court for Chesapeake for two years. Prior to his election, he served as a research associate professor at the Law School from 1994-95 and a litigation partner at Willcox & Savage in Norfolk. A native of Southampton County, Goodwyn earned his undergraduate degree in economics from Harvard University in 1983.
Lemons had served as chief justice since 2015. His last duty as chief justice was presiding over legislative redistricting efforts the court adopted from the state Redistricting Commission. The General Assembly elected him to the state Supreme Court in 2000 and reelected him in 2012. In 1998, he was elected to the Court of Appeals of Virginia after serving for three years as a judge in the Circuit Court of the city of Richmond. Lemons was assistant dean and assistant professor of law at UVA from 1976-78 before entering private practice.
"It has been my honor and privilege to serve the judiciary and the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia for more than 25 years," Lemons said in a letter to lawmakers.
As a judge for Richmond Circuit Court, Lemons helped pioneer drug courts in Virginia, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. Gov. Terry McAuliffe, in remarks at Lemons' 2015 investiture as chief judge, thanked Lemons for his groundbreaking work on drug courts and said Lemons faced a great deal of resistance. There are now more than 50 drug courts across the state.
Lemons is a former president of the American Inns of Court and an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple in London. In 2019, he was awarded the American Inns of Court Lewis F. Powell Jr. Award for Professionalism and Ethics. He was also the 2016 recipient of the William R. Rakes Leadership in Education Award from the Virginia State Bar. Since 2007, he has been the Distinguished Professor of Judicial Studies at the Washington and Lee University School of Law.
"[Lemons] was always approachable, thoughtful, polite and considerate, and he made it clear that he truly appreciated the volunteer work that so many Virginia lawyers do for our self-regulating profession," said Kevin Martingayle ’91, former president of the Virginia State Bar and co-founder of Bischoff Martingayle in Virginia Beach. "His work on wellness issues and professionalism improved the legal system and set the course for future advances. Every lawyer and judge in Virginia should be grateful for his service."
The Supreme Court of Virginia is comprised of seven justices, each elected by a majority vote of both houses of the General Assembly for a term of 12 years. The chief justice is currently chosen by a vote of the seven justices for a term of four years. The statutory mandatory retirement age for Virginia jurists is 73 (the law would not have applied to Lemons this year).
—Mike Fox
1987
Kim Boyle was appointed the vice managing partner of Phelps' New Orleans office. Boyle leads initiatives that expand the firm's relationships with policymakers, industry leaders, nonprofits and other community influencers.
Boyle has been a leader in New Orleans for decades. She currently serves on the boards of directors of GNO Inc., the New Orleans Business Alliance, Amistad Research Center and the Louisiana Womenís Forum.
Bill Brewster shared a picture of the Atlanta Braves dugout in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 6 of the World Series in Houston. Brewster's son and daughter are in the first row — just to the right of Ron Washington — with Brewster just behind them. Brewster writes, "With only a little coaxing from my wife, it was an easy decision to make the trip for the first World Series win that either of them can remember (notwithstanding my then two-year-old son being in my lap and on my shoulders for 1995ís game six, which my then four-year-old daughter has never let me live down wasn't her)."
Timothy S. Goettel is a leading lawyer in corporate law and mergers and acquisitions law in Best Lawyers in America. Goettel practices with Smith Anderson in Raleigh, N.C.
Franz J. Heidinger LL.M. is the secretary general of the Women in Law Initiative's Justitia Awards program. The initiative connects female legal professionals (and their male allies) from around the world, organizes international conferences and presents the annual international awards. Based in Vienna, Heidinger practices international business law as well as teaches at the University of Vienna. He was co-initiator of the Women in Law Initiative and has been involved in anti-discrimination law for more than 15 years. The 2022 Women in Law conference is scheduled for Sept. 15-17, when pressing topics for women in the legal professions will be addressed via more than 50 international speakers and panelists, workshops and networking.
Bob Saunders was recognized as Lawyer of the Year for tax controversy and litigation in Best Lawyers in America. He was also listed as a leader in nonprofit/charities and tax law. Saunders practices with Brooks Pierce in Greensboro, N.C.
Randy Tinsley was recognized as Lawyer of the Year for environmental law in Best Lawyers in America. He was also listed as a leader in environmental litigation. Tinsley practices with Brooks Pierce in Greensboro, N.C.
1988
John Cooper writes that he's "so proud of Matthew Cooper, our son, who graduated from UVA Law's Class of 2021, passed the bar and began a federal clerkship."
Maria Leonard Olsen provided an update: "I recently did my first TEDx Talk at City University of New York, titled 'Turning Life's Challenges into a Force For Good.' Listen at this link. I think it has the capacity to help many people, so please 'like' it on the TED YouTube channel to move it up in the algorithm. I also started a podcast in 2021 called, 'Becoming Your Best Version,' which is available on Apple Podcasts and seven other platforms. In the podcast, I interview inspiring women. Guest suggestions welcome! Learn more about my books and work (including as a litigator at a boutique law firm in the D.C. area) at www.MariaLeonardOlsen.com."
Presiding Judge of the Los Angeles Superior Court Eric C. Taylor ’88 was presented a Hall of Fame Award at the City of Los Angeles African American Heritage Month Celebration in February. The celebration is a joint effort of the office of Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Our Authors Study Club.
James Williams was named one of the 100 most influential business leaders in the Puget Sound area by the Puget Sound Business Journal. Williams is the Seattle office managing partner with Perkins Coie. The publication cited James' work on the new Black Boardroom Initiative, which aims to increase the number of Black leaders on corporate boards. The Washington State Bar Association also recently recognized Williams with the Justice Charles Z. Smith Excellence in Diversity Award.
1989
Paul Compton was listed as a leader in banking and finance law, corporate law, financial services regulation law, real estate law, and securitization and structured finance law in Best Lawyers in America. Compton is a founding partner of Compton Jones Dresher in Birmingham.
Chris Gottscho and family bought a home near Foxfield Racing, outside of Charlottesville. Gottscho wrote about his fond memories of "the great Dean Al Turnbull ’62 calling the day before classes started and saying in his immutable Southern drawl: 'Chris, I know you're planning to come to sit outside my office for a few days in case there's a spot for you, but I just wanted to tell you to bring a check with you as I've decided to let you in.'" Gottscho writes, "We're sorry the dean passed and that we can't have him meet our kids."
