Dan Smith
Victor Cardwell: “I grew up poor, but I didn’t really know it. I learned that the family is the cornerstone.”
Victor Cardwell: Super Lawyer, Family Man By Dan Smith The new president of Virginia’s Bar Association has been one of Roanoke’s most prominent lawyers for years and now he’s the first Black lawyer to hold his spot. And he says it’s all about family. For Victor Cardwell it is not about race or even about his own remarkable success. It is a tale of family. He was recently named the 134th president of the Virginia Bar Association, the largest and most influential organization for lawyers in the Commonwealth. The Chairman of the Board of Woods Rogers in Roanoke, Cardwell is the VBA’s first African-American president. He has been with WR since 1991 and a
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principal since 2006. He comes equipped with a sterling list of previous honors: Virginia Lawyers Weekly selected him as a “Leader in the Law,” and he was Roanoke’s Lawyer of the Year as named by Best Lawyers in America. In 2019, Cardwell was selected for the Martin Luther King Jr. Drum Major for Justice honor awarded by Roanoke’s chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
