W&L Law Discovery - Summer 2021

Farewell to the VC3

Alumni

and faculty reflect on the legacy of the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse, closing its doors after over 30 years serving capital defense attorneys.

BY JEFF HANNA

ON MARCH 8, 1974, A 19-YEAR-OLD FT. BRAGG soldier from Chicago named Robert Gary Bock Jr. was sentenced to death for the fatal stabbing of a woman in rural North Carolina.

That was a defining moment for Bill Geimer, a young defense attorney.

“When my client was sentenced to death, I can tell you that’s when your intellectual college-student opposition to the death penalty turned to stark reality,” recalled Geimer, noting that a 5–4 U.S. Supreme Court decision eventually saved Bock from execution.

Memories of that case followed Geimer to Lexington, where he joined the law school faculty in 1980. He spent his early years establishing his academic bona fides and earning tenure. All the while, he felt “the pull and tug of the need to do something on an issue that had been so important to me for a long time.”

Then, in March 1987, the law school hosted a two-day symposium on death penalty reform, and one of the speakers mentioned the possibility of a student program on the issue.

“That,” Geimer said, “flipped my switch and inspired me to say, ‘Well, I think we can do this at W&L.’ ”

Geimer organized the clinic during the 1987–88 academic year. They began, he said, by making things up as they went along.

“There is a maxim that says death is different,” he noted. “The idea is that when somebody’s life is at stake, the courts are particularly careful in reviewing the law and giving clients the benefit of that careful review. But the exact opposite was

in effect in Virginia. You had people going to trial on Monday, and they were in the death house by Thursday night.”

Geimer’s band of second– and third-year students, working out of the lower level of Lewis Hall, began writing motions and supporting briefs for defense attorneys, many of whom had never tried a capital case. In the succeeding years, almost 400 W&L students participated in VC3, assisting hundreds of Virginia attorneys to provide clients with an adequate defense.

The clinic’s fundamental objective was to promote an adequate defense in capital cases. Indeed, that 1987 symposium — the one where Geimer’s switch was flipped — began with a presentation of three death penalty cases that suffered from blatantly inadequate counsel. The speaker was a South Carolina attorney named David Bruck, who would eventually join the W&L faculty and become VC3’s third director.

clinics, almost all were designed to represent individuals already on death row.

“Bill Geimer’s great insight was that, in Virginia, a clinic like that was too late,” explained Bruck. “Once the death sentence was imposed in Virginia, odds were extremely good that you were going to be executed no matter what was in the record. The idea he hatched was to have a clinic that focused at the pretrial and trial level. For the most part, it was amateur hour on the defense side in case after case; prosecutors had a decisive advantage with lots of experience in these cases. The goal was to raise the standard of defense representation.”

Otto Konrad ’91L was an early participant in VC3. His personal opposition to the death penalty drew him to the clinic, but, he said, VC3 was never about abolishing the death penalty, even if that’s how some saw it. Instead, he said, the students provided resources to overtaxed attorneys so they could represent their clients effectively.

“We worked on motions and on pleadings with our partners in private practice. Our clients were the attorneys, not the defendants,” said Konrad, now a partner with Williams Mullen in Richmond.

~Bill Geimer

At the time of the conference, said Bruck, there was a lot of righteous concern about how inadequate the defense function was in Virginia, where executions were steadily increasing. Although law schools were beginning to organize death penalty

Despite Geimer’s insistence, confirmed by others, that VC3 was not about abolishing the death penalty, not everyone bought it. Even inside the law school, Geimer said, the clinic was a curiosity. “People wondered, ‘Who are they? A bunch of antideath penalty bomb throwers?’ ”

In April 1989, only a year into VC3’s existence, the Richmond Times-Dispatch attacked the clinic for one of its continuing education seminars. The editorial read, in part: “When this W&L clear-

“People wondered, ‘Who are they? A bunch of anti-death penalty bomb throwers?’ ”

Bill Geimer with one of his first groups of clinic students.

The Human Story

HELEN KONRAD ’91L JUMPED directly into death penalty work when she left W&L. In fact, her experience with VC3 was one reason she was hired by her Richmond firm, which was then involved in defending one of the highest profile death penalty cases in Virginia’s history — the Lem Tuggle murder case. Tim Kaine, now Virginia’s junior senator, was Tuggle’s attorney.

“At W&L, Lem Tuggle was Bill Geimer’s poster child for everything we were doing, because the case was navigating its way through the multiple lower court levels on its way to the Supreme Court,” said Konrad. “Once I began working on the case with Tim Kaine, I had to write briefs to try to unravel the case, and it was really difficult. You are stuck with the facts of the case; Tuggle had had a terrible counsel, and the record was sealed so very few appeal points were preserved.

“I never found anything more complicated and difficult. Tim is obviously a brilliant guy and Bill Geimer is just as brilliant in trying to teach you those areas of law that were so challenging. I feel like Bill made me such a good lawyer because I came out the other side and everything was easy compared with death penalty law.”

Bruck readily acknowledges that capital defense is complex litigation that requires a lawyer to be organized and think systematically. He also believes VC3 provides a lesson that serves students in every area of the law — do not prejudge.

“Capital defense, like few other areas, requires the ability to pierce through the surface of things and try to understand the human story that underlies every human situation no matter how dire,” he said. “The willingness to do that is a mark of good capital defense lawyer but, in some ways, I think it’s the mark of a good lawyer period.”

inghouse was established last summer, Professor Geimer exclaimed it that ‘will provide a great service to the commonwealth.’ Relatives of capital murder victims may beg to differ. So may people who value education more highly than political indoctrination.”

Geimer admits he may have aggravated matters a bit by “shaking my fist in the face of the attorney general and the governor and everybody else.” But he always appreciated how the deans, especially the late Randy Bezanson, deflected the flak, leaving him and the students free to do their work.

Winning a $60,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education in 1991 helped put the program on solid financial footing. Elizabeth Bennett ’90L, Geimer’s wife, wrote that successful grant as an original member of VC3.

Geimer remembered being called into Dean Bezanson’s office once the grant was announced. “He told me that VC3 had earned a place in the school’s regular annual budget on the basis of its academic value,” Geimer said. “W&L deserves great credit, because why should a small, privately endowed university take on this acute need in the state? Why wasn’t it Mr. Jefferson’s university down the road, for instance? I owe a great debt of thanks to all my former colleagues and to the university for the support.”

Matthew Engle ’01L was surprised to learn that the clinic had ever been controversial. He’s seen VC3 from two sides. Not only did he participate as a student, but he has served as interim director on three occasions, most recently this year.

“What I really admire about Washington and Lee is that they have been willing to take on what can be a very politically unpopular cause,” said Engle, who has specialized in capital cases in his Charlottesville firm, Donovan Engle. “One thing we should all be able to agree on as lawyers is that people facing the death penalty should get the highest level of legal representation, and W&L has put that principle into practice.”

Bruck agrees with Engle’s assessment. VC3, he said, was the first statewide entity to identify the standards all defense lawyers should meet along with the approaches that should inform them in every case.

“In the years before I got there, I think VC3 helped establish what you could call a standard of care for capital defense in Virginia that hadn’t been there,” said Bruck. “In those early years, it was like a MASH unit, mass-producing pretrial motions in the days when everything was done by paper and regular mail.”

The quote from a Dylan Thomas poem become an iconic sign and informal vision statement.

Roger Groot Bill Geimer David Bruck

Otto Konrad remembers the clinic as “our own little law school firm” with Geimer as the partner and the students as associates.

“Bill gave us direction and focus on what we were to do for the client, which was the lawyer with whom we were working,” he said. “He reviewed our product and gave us feedback. We’d make adjustments and send it to the practitioner. For me, it was the perfect opportunity to work with a professor in a non-classroom setting on real-world problems. Nowadays law schools do this as a matter of course. But this was rare back then when we were pretty much locked into the Socratic method.”

Page McThenia ’00L had two “managing partners” — Geimer for one year and the late Roger Groot, who took over the program in 1999 and was director until 2004 when Bruck arrived. Since Page McThenia’s father, Uncas McThenia ’58, ’63L, was on the law school faculty, she’d known both Geimer and Groot as family friends.

“VC3 was fundamental to my law school experience,” she said. “Bill and Roger had distinctive styles, but we worked as a really good team with both of them.”

Learning to work as a team was a lesson in itself.

To be successful, capital cases cannot rely on a single defense attorney. Bruck believes there are no good capital defense lawyers who are lone rangers. “That’s the mark of a bad lawyer in this particular area,” he said, “and it never works out well.”

Daniel Goldman ’11L seconded that observation. Goldman is the capital defender for Northern Virginia. “In the early days of indigent defense, people were lucky to get one lawyer who maybe knew something about criminal defense but maybe didn’t,” he said. “We’ve grown to where we understand that someone charged with a serious crime needs a team of people — not just lawyers. Investigators and mitigation specialists are crucial.”

Much of what is involved in death penalty work, said Bruck, is not particularly about the law. It has to do with psychology, sociology, history and just human relationships.

“It can be child rearing and trauma, the experience of being a crime victim or being the victim of abuse or neglect or systemic racism,” he explained. “These are things that are not covered in the law school curriculum. But it is the stuff of capital defense.”

Helen Konrad ’91L was in that first wave of VC3 participants. She was drawn by Geimer’s infectious passion and recalled “spellbinding” conversations with him on the topic. But, she quickly added, the experience was a good lesson in being a lawyer primarily because it was all about proving your case and taking unpopular positions for broader policy reasons.

“Bill taught you this life lesson about mitigating evidence,” said Konrad, who is now director in the immigration practice group of McCandlish Holton P.C., in Richmond. “To stop the analysis at a heinous crime misses such a big part of life and how people get to this point and why they get to this point. It’s so easy to see black and white and just stop there.”

Engle has a particularly vivid recollection of watching Groot at work in a Wise County courtroom when members of VC3 accompanied him to a trial.

“We were there when they were selecting the jury and sat at the defense table with Roger and his co-counsel and even helped them pick which jurors they wanted to use their preemptory challenges on. It was a fantastic hands-on experience.”

Nine years later, Engle sat at the defense table in a Louisa County courtroom for what proved to be a historic occasion — the last death penalty case in Virginia history. He and his co-counsels were successful in getting that case dismissed in October 2020. Five months later, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam signed legislation abolishing the death penalty in the Commonwealth.

Geimer, who moved to Canada principally because of his opposition to the death penalty, thought Virginia would never abolish the death

penalty in his lifetime. Bruck, on the other hand, thought it would happen, but he was still surprised that it happened in 2021.

~David Bruck

“The death penalty disappears gradually. It doesn’t disappear all at once,” said Bruck. “We’ve demonstrated that Virginia can do fine without it, that it wasn’t worth the expense and the division and the eye-gouging struggle in every case that had characterized murder trials in the state.”

As Bruck noted, the state finally created the conditions for a fair fight between the prosecution and the defense. Those conditions included the creation of four regional capital defender offices. When Bruck arrived as director in 2004, much of VC3’s work had shifted from assisting individual defense attorneys to supporting the four state offices.

“Those offices had a lot to learn, too. They were new to this,” said Bruck. “I think the clinic did a fair amount of good in working with those offices and also in working with private lawyers in cases where the capital defender offices weren’t appointed.”

Goldman joined the Northern Virginia capital defender office shortly after his W&L graduation and worked his way up to being the lead lawyer. Once Gov. Northam signed the law to end the death penalty, the state announced the four offices, including Goldman’s, would close.

“We’d always joked that we were putting ourselves out of business,” said Goldman. “Now we move on to the next thing. But I still have work to do on my current cases, even though they’re not death cases. Much of what we do is try to get death out of the cases and move on from there.”

Kristina Joyner-Leslie ’10L has worked as a public defender since graduation and was a leader in the abolition movement. She spent three years with the Office of the Public Defender in Maryland, three more in Northern Virginia with Goldman and now is an assistant federal public defender back in Maryland. In addition, she is president of the board of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. She credited Bruck for her career trajectory.

“I was blown away by a death penalty course with David. I’d never thought about the death penalty. It wasn’t something that my family talked about around the dinner table,” she said. “The course caused me to apply to VC3 in my third year, and it’s David’s fault I’m involved in his work.”

She had been expecting the death penalty decision in Virginia and thinks a confluence of factors speeded the process — the Black Lives Matter movement, the pandemic, the George Floyd case and the fact that Gov. Northam wanted it as part of his legacy. Plus, defense attorneys were winning, and there hadn’t been a death penalty in a decade. “Everything was lining up and gearing toward abolition,” she said.

As VC3 disbands, a victim of its own success in many ways, Geimer is indebted to the students’ commitment and their creativity and for the support he received from both the university and attorneys in the death penalty defense community. “Thinking back on it,” he said, “I am extremely grateful to so many people.”

“I never imagined VC3 would have a mission accomplished moment,” said Bruck. “I only hope students had experiences in the clinic that broadened their perspective of what it is to be a good lawyer — to be a good lawyer for people who desperately need representation.”

The New Clinic

TO HELP FILL THE GAP IN THE EXPEriential curriculum with the closing of the clearinghouse, the law school is set to launch a new clinic this fall. The Civil Rights and Racial Justice Clinic will allow students to pursue racial and economic justice through direct legal representation in housing and employment matters. Students will also develop and conduct know-your-rights workshops and engage in strategic policy advocacy and reform grounded in the needs of the community.

Carla Laroche, the clinic director, will join W&L this fall from Florida State, where she directs and teaches in the Gender and Family Justice Clinic. Before joining Florida State, Laroche served as a fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center in Tallahassee, where she advocated for the reformation of mass incarceration of children and adults in Florida. She also served as a pro bono fellow at Hunton & Williams LLP and as a law clerk for the Hon. Donald M. Middlebrooks, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida. Laroche received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University, a master’s in public policy from Harvard University and her law degree from Columbia University.

Laroche, a first-generation Haitian American, was named an American Bar Association On the Rise Top 40 Young Lawyer. She co-chairs the ABA Criminal Justice Section Women in Criminal Justice Task Force and has received the National Bar Association 40 Under 40 Award, Excellence in Activism Award and the Young Lawyers Division’s Humanitarian Award.

Be on the lookout for more about the work of the new clinic in the next issue of Discovery.

“I never imagined VC3 would have a mission accomplished moment.”

Carla Laroche

Graduates Honored at 2021 Commencement Ceremony

W&L LAW CELEBRATED ITS 166TH Commencement on May 7, awarding 119 juris doctor degrees.

The event was the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that the Law School community was able to gather in person, although masks and social distancing were still in place for the ticketed event. The graduation ceremony was held on Wilson Field, a first for the university, as noted by President Will Dudley.

“The experience of the Class of ’21 has been historic,” Dudley said. “Your 3L year has been like none before it. Yet, at the same time, you share much with the law graduates who have preceded you. Your time at W&L has shaped you, as individuals and as a class. Together you have studied, argued and developed the habits of mind that characterize good lawyers. You have made lasting friendships that will give you pleasure and support wherever you may go.”

Brant Hellwig, dean of the law school, followed President Dudley to the podium.

“Thank you for the privilege of being a part of your development and growth over the past three years,” he said. “Thank you for being a part of our continuing education and growth as well. We have learned so much from our conversations and interactions with you — both in class and beyond.”

After the graduates were awarded their degrees, President Dudley introduced Dean Hellwig as this year’s Commencement speaker. Hellwig has served as dean of the law school since 2015 and will conclude his tenure this summer.

Hellwig organized his address around a song playlist, drawing out song themes and interweaving them with inspiring stories of some of the school’s alumni and advice for students. For example, the Bill Withers classic “Lean on Me” served as an opportunity to highlight the role of a lawyer in society.

“When you examine the role of a counselor and advocate with an eye toward the humanity of the position, a law license offers the potential to bring to others a sense of calm, comfort and even hope. To be the person your clients lean on. The ability to serve in that role is an incredible privilege and a tremendous responsibility.”

LEE S. BRETT

John W. Davis Prize for Law

highest cumulative grade point average

HECTOR QUESADA

American Bankruptcy Institute Medal

excellence in study of bankruptcy law

DANIELLE MELISSA POTTER AND PATRICK L. WRIGHT

Roy L. Steinheimer Jr. Commercial Law Award

excellence in commercial law

HALEY CHRISTINA DOSS SANTOS

Virginia Trial Lawyers Association Award effective trial advocacy

NORIYA SHAHADAT

H. McLeod-Ross Malone Oral Advocacy Award

distinction in oral advocacy

REBECCA TAYLOR MITCHELL

Frederic L. Kirgis Jr. International Law Award

excellence in international law

OLUWATITOMI AKINMOLA

Virginia Bar Family Law Section Award

excellence in the area of family law

CHARLES LOUIS BONANI

Barry Sullivan Constitutional Law Award

excellence in constitutional law

During his talk, Hellwig also shared the inspirational story of alumnus Edmund D. Campbell, who successfully represented the plaintiffs in James v. Almond, a decision which overthrew Virginia’s program of “massive resistance” and resulted in the racial integration of Virginia’s public schools.

“Both now and in the years ahead, you undoubtedly will have an opportunity to stand up for what you believe is right, and you will have the benefit of a law degree to enhance your ability to obtain those results for your clients and for society more broadly,” Hellwig said. “I hope you claim those opportunities and that when you do so, that you just keep on keeping on.”

AWARDS

MOLLY PAYNE PUGH AND MATTHEW TRENT WYATT

James W. H. Stewart Tax Law Award excellence in tax law

WARREN MICHAEL BUFF, MICHAEL HUNTER RUSH AND BROOKE ELIZABETH WILSON

Thomas Carl Damewood Evidence Award

excellence in the area of evidence

LEE S. BRETT AND ESHALA CHANDELIA UNIQUE BUNCH

Criminal Law Award

excellence in courses of criminal law

LUCY GENEVA DEMPSEY AND MORGAN LEE SEXTON Business Law Award

excellence in courses of business law

RAMI ABDALLAH ELIAS RASHMAWI

Administrative Law Award

excellence in courses of administrative law

JACK JAMES ANDRADE

Clinical Legal Education Association Award outstanding clinic student

EDUARDO ENRIQUE GARZA III

Clinical Legal Education Association

Outstanding Externship Award outstanding externship student

Following Hellwig’s remarks, third-year class officers Will Mallery and Aaron Hardy presented Hellwig with his very own walking stick, traditionally given to students at the awards ceremony preceding graduation.

Graduation festivities began Thursday with the annual awards ceremony, which was held in a virtual format. Three students graduated summa cum laude, 18 graduated magna cum laude and 18 graduated cum laude. Twelve students were named to the Order of the Coif.

The Student Bar Association Teacher of the Year went to Franklin Runge, and the Staff Member of the Year Award went to Dori Hamilton.

JULIA MARY KERR

Charles V. Laughlin Award

outstanding contribution to moot court program

ANNA-MARIE CHIWANGA

Student Bar Association President Award

recognition for services as president of the Student Bar Association

LLEWELLYN KITTREDGE SHAMAMIAN AND REBECCA TAYLOR MITCHELL W&L Law Women’s Law Award

outstanding contribution to women in the law

CHANDLER HOPE GRAY, AARON RUSSELL HARDY AND ADENIKE OLUWATOSIN RENEE MILES-SORINMADE

Calhoun Bond University Service Award

significant contribution to the university community

OLUWATITOMI AKINMOLA, ADENIKE OLUWATOSIN RENEE MILESSORINMADE AND NORIYA SHAHADAT

Randall P. Bezanson Award

outstanding contribution to diversity in the life of the law school community

AUTUMN NICOLE DICKERSON AND NORIYA SHAHADAT

Professionalism and Service Award

significant contribution of public service in the community

Law Classroom Named in Honor of Alumnus Edmund D. Campbell

Campbell was a champion of desegregation in Virginia and worked to fight the state’s program of massive resistance.

&L LAW HAS NAMED LEWIS

WHall’s Classroom B in honor of Edmund D. Campbell, who graduated from the university in 1918 and the law school in 1922. Campbell was a leading advocate in legal challenges to end segregation.

“Simply put, Edmund Campbell was a beacon of professional courage and integrity,” said Dean Brant Hellwig. “He was willing to take cases challenging an entrenched societal status quo that withheld equality and justice for all. His life and career provide a tremendous example for our students, and it is fitting to have a classroom named in his honor.”

Edmund Douglas Campbell (1899–1995) was born on the front campus of the university in 1899, the son and grandson of W&L professors. He was valedictorian of the Class of 1918 and graduated from the law school in 1922 at the top of his class. He practiced law in Arlington, Virginia, and

Washington, D.C., from 1932–90. He served as president of the District of Columbia Bar Association and as a member of the American Bar Association’s board of governors.

In 1958 Campbell successfully represented plaintiffs before a federal panel of three judges in the Eastern District of Virginia in James v. Almond, a decision which overthrew Virginia’s program of “massive resistance” and resulted in the racial integration of Virginia’s public schools. “To be true to myself,” he later wrote, “I had to take the case in favor of desegregation in the state of Virginia when other lawyers refused…. I could not live with myself if I did not stand up publicly for what I knew was right.”

Five years later, before the U.S. Supreme Court, he successfully argued in Davis v. Mann against policies of Virginia’s dominant “Byrd Machine,” which unequally apportioned the electoral districts

of the Virginia General Assembly. The Court determined that the principle of one person, one vote must apply to Virginia’s state elections.

Following his death in 1995, his family and friends established the Edmund D. Campbell Public Interest Fund in his memory.

FOLLOWING THE NATIONWIDE reckoning with racial injustice that emerged in 2020, the faculty of Washington and Lee committed themselves to infusing their courses with instruction that would illuminate how systemic racism and prejudice have impacted their areas of expertise.

W&L Law professor Carliss Chatman, an expert in corporate law, saw in this effort a unique opportunity to help students trace the origins of commercial law through her Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) Core Concepts course, while at the same time confronting the university’s ties to slavery.

The UCC class explores such concepts as the sale of goods, negotiable instruments like promissory notes and checks as forms of payment and the use of personal property as loan collateral.

“The UCC is in your life all time, you just don’t realize it,” says Chatman. “Every time you buy something from the store, or if you have ever bought furniture on time, you are using the UCC.”

The class is also important for law students’ preparation for the bar exam. Every state has adopted the UCC at least in part, and all states test this topic for licensure.

“It’s the only class where we talk about commercial paper — checks, for example,” says Chatman. “With checks and notes, we make paper the same as cash so people don’t have to carry around suitcases full of gold. The UCC sets up norms that everyone can trust and believe in so that commerce moves as smoothly as possible.”

For many current law students, for whom even debit cards may seem quaint compared to Venmo and the like, this class may be the first time they have considered the purpose of a paper check.

So where does slavery fit into the class? While the UCC was not codified and adopted until the 1950s and ’60s, Chatman explains that the code draws many of its definitions and classifications from the rise of commercial shipping and the merchant class in the 1500s, a period contemporaneous with the slave trade and slave ownership.

“Many of the banking and labor concepts and even ideas about organizational structure come

from the plantation economy,” says Chatman. “For example, the emphasis on data and tracking of employee behavior, systems of management hierarchies and even the very idea of laborers as human capital, an expense to be minimized, were all initially tested and proven on the plantation.”

By examining these connections, Chatman says students can see the ways racial bias is baked into the commercial systems that we still use today. This point is driven home at the end of the class, during a final exercise that tests students’ understanding of various UCC articles. For this activity, Chatman accessed the collection of primary sources at W&L that document the university’s ties to slavery.

Chatman asked students to examine different aspects of the transactions surrounding the will of John Robinson, which conveyed 74 enslaved people to the university and required the university to keep the enslaved community together at Robinson’s estate for 50 years following his death. For example, students were asked to determine whether the Robinson will is a contract, and if so, to examine the ways in which Article 2 of the UCC would govern restrictions on the ways the university could lease or sell the enslaved people.

“In general, students learn better when the work they are doing is bound to reality,” says Chatman.

“Beyond that, it is a real challenge for students to remain dispassionate, as lawyers must, when dealing with legal issues. This is particularly the case with a premise that turns people into a good. I want them to struggle with this.”

One student in the class, Molly Pugh ’21L, saw the class as a powerful and meaningful invitation to explore the practical implications of slavery through the eyes of the law.

“Professor Chatman did a beautiful job of not only providing us with a thorough, in-practice review of the UCC, she used the UCC to highlight the realities of slavery,” Pugh said. “Enslaved people were considered economic assets. In accordance with the UCC, that recognition required us to classify human beings as either ‘farm products’ or ‘equipment.’ ”

Pugh explained that the classifications implicated a different UCC definition and procedure for perfecting a creditor’s interest in that “property” as collateral, so she and her classmates had to apply the law — both as written at the time in the 1860 Va Code and according to the UCC — as they studied it.

“According to the 1860 Va Code, even if an owner attempted to free his or her slaves, that freedom would not be granted until all debts were paid,” said Pugh. “Even in the few cases where humanity could have prevailed, the law precluded that result.”

And just as Chatman hoped, it was a true struggle for students to remain dispassionate during the exercise.

“In many ways, viewing slavery through the eyes of the UCC forced us to remove emotion,” said Pugh. “However, it also had the effect of revealing the raw emotion — and economic motives — underneath people being treated as property. It showed the force of money and power, especially in the law.”

Chatman is currently writing a law review article about the methods used in the course in the hope that other professors will dig into their institutional history and use those archives as a tool to draw connections between the past and the present.

“I believe students can be as enriched by this exercise as they are by reading the older landmark cases,” she said.

Slavery and Commerce

Professor Uses Institutional History to Animate Study of Commercial Code

Professor Carliss Chatman

A Q&A with Dean Hellwig

Brant Hellwig will conclude his tenure as dean, a position he has held since 2015, in June 2021. He plans to return to the full-time faculty following a sabbatical. Below he reflects on his tenure.

What are some highlights?

Looking back over my time in the dean position, I am proud of our school’s ability to tackle an extremely challenging period in the market while fully embracing our distinctive nature — a closely knit law school that prioritizes the student experience, one located in a beautiful smalltown community.

Generations of alumni will cite outstanding professors they had during their time at W&L Law, professors who invested in them personally. It is gratifying to see our faculty across the board, both the more experienced faculty and the more recent additions to our community, embrace this defining characteristic of our law school. While our faculty have a range of teaching styles, the quality of the classroom experience remains high across the board. The quality of our program and the level of investment our faculty and administration make in our students distinguishes us from other schools, and the resulting atmosphere is uplifting.

Another gratifying aspect of my tenure as dean was to work with an incredible range of talented individuals at the law school, both faculty and administration, in a collective effort to move the school forward. So many people have rolled up their sleeves and dedicated themselves to our mission and overall success. It has been a joy to work alongside them. While we certainly faced challenges and stressful periods along the way, we frequently succeeded at having fun in the process.

Another significant highlight of my tenure in the dean’s office was the wide-ranging support we received from our alumni. As we embarked on the transition plan announced by the Board of Trustees, the law alumni increased contributions to the Law Annual Fund by over 33% in the first year alone. Significant annual increases followed, and we continued to raise endowed funds for scholarship resources. But our alumni have contributed far more than financial support. They have reached out to students we hope to recruit to W&L Law, and they have actively supported our graduates in landing positions in the legal profession. Our alumni both responded to and contributed to the momentum we have developed over the past few years. I am extremely grateful for their support and goodwill.

What will you miss?

The most difficult aspect of the decision to return to my full-time role as a faculty member was shar-

ing the news with the students. While I was never one to cling to the “dean” title (I actually prefer to think of myself as a player-coach in this role), I did enjoy having that leadership role for the student body. I both enjoyed being and was honored to be “their” dean.

In that regard, some of my best moments in this position have been spent engaging with students. At the end of the spring semester in 2019, Peter Jetton (our communications director) and I led an impromptu road trip with students to visit the Equal Justice Initiative museums in Montgomery, Alabama, in advance of Bryan Stevenson’s Commencement address to the graduating class.

are arriving at Lewis Hall for the first time (easy to spot given the number of photos that are taken in front of the building). And, at the conclusion of their law school career, at the picnic we traditionally hold on Cannan Green following the Commencement ceremony. Certainly, those interactions were limited in the past year, but they are coming back in full force now. While my engagement with students undoubtedly will continue in my capacity as a faculty member, I enjoyed being accessible to students in the dean role.

What’s our biggest challenge?

The biggest challenge is making sure that the W&L Law experience is fully available and enjoyed by the entire student body. While part of these efforts entails recruiting a more diverse student body, faculty and staff, the primary goal is for every member of our community to feel seen, supported and valued. That is why we have given out shirts at orientation that state the following under the W&L Law logo: “My school, our community.” I want everyone to feel a sense of ownership and belonging at our school, while also recognizing our obligation to support the community here for all. We have made significant strides on the degree of belonging at the law school, but significant work remains.

What would you do for the school if you had a magic wand?

That trip combined incredibly profound and moving experiences with lighthearted trips to local restaurants and a minor league baseball game. I also was able to take the students enrolled in the appellate advocacy class offered by Virginia Supreme Court Chief Justice Donald Lemons to hear arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court. As usual, we were able to combine some great group meals on the trip with a tremendously educational experience. I remember with pride taking a group photo in the halls of the Court in front of the portrait of our alumnus Lewis F. Powell Jr.

But it is the small interactions with students that I will miss most. In classrooms, in the halls, in the Brief Stop, at the gym and in town at coffee shops and restaurants. In the parking lot when students

We benefit tremendously from the generosity of alumni and friends at W&L Law. Scholarship resources in particular have allowed us to keep the actual cost of our brand of legal education at a broadly accessible level. But if I could change anything, it would be to expand both the amount and distribution of aid to our students. This would reduce the financial pressure of law school and enable our students to expand their options in the legal profession, whether in the private or public sector.

A final thought?

To me, it feels good to walk into Lewis Hall. It is a comfortable, positive place where we get to work with phenomenally talented students. That is our past, our present and if all goes well, our future.

Karen Woody Named a Herndon Fellow

Karen Woody, associate professor of law, has been selected for a fellowship with the Herndon Foundation aimed at preparing diverse professionals for positions on corporate boards.

THE PROGRAM, THE HERNDON DIRECTORS Institute, is a partnership between the foundation and America’s leading corporations and organizations to expand the participation of women and minorities in business leadership. Woody was one of 19 fellows selected to participate in the intensive six-month program.

“I am thrilled for the opportunity and have already gained so much insight and knowledge in just the first few weeks of the program,” said Woody. “We have already had a range of impressive speakers, including Ken Frazier, the current CEO of Merck, among others. I’m very much looking forward to the opportunities this fellowship will create.”

The program seeks to prepare fellows for positions as corporate directors by giving them

hands-on experience in governance fundamentals, stakeholder capitalism, financial and risk management and market and brand dominance, among other topics.

Woody joined the W&L Law faculty in 2019. Her scholarship focuses on securities law, financial regulation and white-collar crime. She has published her work in a number of journals, including the Maryland Law Review, Stanford Law Review Online, Cardozo Law Review, Fordham Law Review and the Journal of Corporation Law. Her work on conflict minerals is widely cited, and she has testified for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Financial Services regarding federal conflict minerals regulation.

Miller Receives Prestigious Research Prize

Miller is a globally recognized expert in German law and legal culture.

RUSSELL MILLER, J.B. STOMBOCK PROFESsor of Law, is the recipient of a Humboldt Research Prize from Germany’s Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. The Humboldt Research Prizes are among Germany’s highest academic honors.

Miller was nominated for the award by the Faculty of Law at the University of Münster, where he has conducted research and collaborated with several members of the faculty. He is currently on leave while he serves as the head of the Max Planck Law Network, a consortium of the 10 law-related Max Planck Institutes.

The Humboldt Research Prize is awarded to leading international scholars from all disciplines in recognition of their career achievements. Scholars are nominated for their fundamental discoveries, new theories or insights that have had a lasting impact on their field of study. The Münster Law Faculty’s nomination described Miller as “America’s leading scholar of German constitutional law

and a profound contributor to German-American relations.”

Miller is a globally recognized expert in German law and legal culture. He is the author or editor of a number of books and articles in the fields of comparative law and international law. In 2012 he published a co-authored English-language treatise on German constitutional law that the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg described as “a masterful text.” Miller also is a frequent commentator in global media sources, including Germany’s “paper of record,” The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which publishes his monthly column on law and transatlantic affairs. He is the co-founder and editor in chief of the German Law Journal, an online, English-language journal reporting on developments in German, European and international jurisprudence. Miller has also been recognized for his work on German law and transatlantic affairs with a Schumann Fellowship from the University of Münster and a KoRSE Fellowship

Can Law Keep Up?

A new book by professor Joshua Fairfield examines how the law can keep pace to govern rapid advancements in technology.

JOSHUA FAIRFIELD, THE WILLIAM DONALD Bain Family Professor of Law, has spent his entire academic career researching the cutting edge of technology from a legal perspective. He has examined property ownership and contracts in virtual worlds, big data privacy, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, and the use of digital information to establish guilt or innocence in a criminal context. If there is one thing that ties his work together, it is the notion that the law is ideally suited to deal with advances in technology, no matter how rapid the change or how fundamental the impact on our lives.

“Throughout our history, the law has helped us deal with new questions, many times sprung from new technology, be it railroad transportation systems or skin grafting,” says Fairfield. “Law is the system for adapting human culture in response to technological change.”

It is this concept that Fairfield explores in his new book “Runaway Technology: Can Law Keep

Up” from Cambridge University Press. In an era of corporate surveillance, artificial intelligence, deep fakes, genetic modification, automation and more,

at the University of Freiburg. In 2014 he testified before the German Bundestag, and he has twice been awarded a Fulbright Senior Fellowship in support of his research in Germany.

law often seems to take a back seat to rampant technological change. In fact, giant technology companies actively work against attempts to regulate and reign in their efforts, pushing the myth that law is unable to match the speed of technological development.

However, Fairfield rejects this notion and argues that not only do legal frameworks already exist to govern most new technology, but the law itself is a uniquely human technology capable of rapid evolution.

“Law can keep up with technology because law is a kind of technology — a social technology built by humans out of cooperative fictions like firms, nations and money,” says Fairfield. “However, to secure the benefits of changing technology for all of us, we need a new kind of law, one that reflects our evolving understanding of how humans use language to cooperate.”

CLASS UPDATES AND SUCCESS STORIES

Immersed in IP

BY JEFF

“Would you still be interested?” they asked. “Definitely,” he said.

Collopy was already interested in intellectual property when he arrived at W&L Law in 1978. When one law school asked him to write an essay predicting what he thought he’d be doing in five years, he wrote that he would be working in Asia for an electronics company as an IP attorney.

“When I happened to find that essay 10 years later, I was working in Singapore for Motorola as an IP attorney,” he said. “It took 10 years, but I’d gotten there.”

coming. We were never able to catch anybody in Thailand,” said Collopy, who also trained U.S. Customs agents to spot counterfeit Motorola products.

After assignments in Florida, Singapore and Phoenix, he landed with the burgeoning cellular division in Chicago, where he and colleagues met with inventors pitching new products.

From prosecuting murder trials in Southwest Virginia to executing a $6 billion deal to sell Motorola’s Asia facilities, DAN COLLOPY ’81L’s legal career has been anything but dull.

Take, for instance, that time someone broke into his home and burned it to the ground, leaving Collopy’s wife tied up on the back porch. He’d been a prosecuting attorney for about 4 ½ years by then and was assisting a federal investigation into an arson-forhire case at the time.

Two days later, Collopy got a call from an Atlanta firm where he’d interviewed for an IP job five years earlier.

60s

1969L

J.D. Humphries (’66) is retiring after practicing law for 52 years, most recently with Smith, Gambrell & Russell in Atlanta. 70s

1971L

David Baird and his wife, Stephanie, were honored for their volunteerism and support of the Christus Foundation for HealthCare at its 17th Annual Spring Luncheon.

Collopy took an in-house position with Motorola in 1989. He’d been there five years when he joined the company’s Singapore office, where he engaged in lobbying and negotiating cellular and paging standards with governments in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China. Counterfeit pagers had been proliferating, and he led anti-counterfeiting raids in Malaysia and worked with the Chinese government on the problem.

“We went into Thailand, but it was difficult there because you would present the subpoena at the local police station, and they’d send one of their guys to warn the people we were

80s

1982L

Dana Petersen Moore was named chief equity officer for the City of Baltimore’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights. Moore’s responsibilities include upholding local and federal civil rights and wage laws, as well as providing oversight of the Baltimore Police Department.

1987L

Scott H. Tucker has become a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He is a partner with Friday, Eldredge & Clark and head of the railroad litigation practice group.

1988L

Richard K. Welch is retiring from the Federal Communications Commission after a 32-year career. For the past 10 years he has served as

“I remember how this one guy brought in a fairly large phone with a screen on it. He said he wanted to address the teenage market. This was 1999, and cell phones were used primarily for business,” Collopy said. “He said the screen let you take a picture of the person on the other end of the line, which was something he thought would appeal to the teenage market.

“He turned to me and asked whether he could get a patent on the camera that he’d put in his phone. And I said, ‘Yes, you could get a patent on it, but who would ever want a camera in a phone?’ ”

After Motorola, Collopy went to Silicon Valley with the semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices. When his wife became ill, they moved to Atlanta to be closer to grandchildren,

deputy chief for appellate litigation in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel.

90s

1990L

Doug Herndon was elected to the Supreme Court of Nevada in Carson City, Nevada.

1991L

Jack Piller and Susanna Piller ’92L have retired from their full-time legal practices in the Adirondack region of New York State and are now working part-time remotely as “of counsel” to Adirondack area law firms. The couple relocated to Lexington, where they are enjoying farming, hiking and cycling.

Rebecca Womeldorf was named reporter of decisions for the Supreme Court of the United States. She will be the 17th reporter of decisions and the second woman to hold the position. The reporter of

and Collopy worked remotely as vice president of Ingrassia, Fisher & Lorenz, a Phoenix firm that specializes in IP.

After his wife died in 2010, Collopy returned to Singapore, where he is a principal with the Australian-based IP firm Spruson & Ferguson. He also has teaching and training responsibilities with the IP Academy Singapore and Singapore University of Social Sciences.

Over his nearly 35 years immersed in IP law, Collopy has witnessed a remarkable shift in perception about the field.

“Back in the ’90s, I’d talk with people, CEOs and GMs who were supposed to be making the decisions, and they’d say, ‘Well, what does IP stand for?’ ” he said. “By the later aughts, people were beginning to realize you could extra a lot of value of these IP assets.”

Collopy was clearly onto something when he first set his sights on a career in IP at W&L. “I think W&L had only one IP course, and it was trademarks with Sally Wiant,” Collopy said. “But all my courses — property law, criminal law, labor law — got me started, and I’m grateful.”

decisions prepares a syllabus or summary of the Court’s opinions for the convenience of readers. Womeldorf will also be responsible for editing the opinions of the Supreme Court and supervising their printing and official publication in the United States Reports. She will oversee a staff of 10 professionals who examine each of the Court’s draft opinions.

1992L

Michael Carlson joins Fulton County, Georgia, as executive district attorney for the major crimes division. In his role, Carlson will work on a variety of issues, from cold cases to capital murder to public integrity investigation. Known as an expert in the rules of evidence, Mike is the co-author of “Carlson on Evidence,” written with his father, University of Georgia law professor Ronald Carlson, which offers a detailed comparison between Georgian and federal rules on evidence.

Eric Nelson was named managing partner of Smith

Currie in Atlanta. His practice focuses on project disputes related to federal government construction, health care (including hospitals and laboratories) and EPC project delivery (including energy and process facilities).

1995L

Jennifer and Tal Franklin have moved from Dallas to Portland, Maine.

1996L

Kristen Konrad Johnstone joined Parks Zeigler as the managing partner for their Roanoke office. She focuses primarily on family law matters.

Michael Spencer joined Rimini Street in Las Vegas, as group vice president and associate general counsel for ethics and compliance. Rimini Street is a global provider of enterprise software products and services.

After his start as a prosecutor, Dan Collopy ’81L found his way into intellectual property law and a career in Asia.

HANNA

John Klinedinst ’71, ’78L Takes Chairman Emeritus Status at Firm

For the first time in the nearly 40 years since the firm’s founding, someone other than JOHN KLINEDINST ’71, ’78L will be at the helm of San Diego-based Klinedinst PC after he became chairman emeritus earlier this year. The original office opened in 1983 and has since expanded to five locations on the West Coast.

While Klinedinst assumes his newly created role, he will continue

to focus on litigation, including professional liability, business litigation and intellectual property disputes. Heather Rosing will take over as CEO and president of the firm, where she has been chief financial officer for the past 15 years and is chairperson of the professional liability and ethics practice group.

“John has successfully led the firm for 37 years, and we are thankful for

all the opportunities he has created,” said Rosing. “His focus on cultivating top-caliber attorneys who excel in client service has been a winning formula for many years. Klinedinst is well-positioned to meet the diverse legal needs of our clients now and in the future, thanks to John’s vision.”

Klinedinst served as a trustee of the university from 2001-10.

1997L

Francis M. “Trey” Hamilton

III received the Claudia J. Flynn Award for Professional Responsibility from the Department of Justice in November. The award recognizes his contributions to the rule of law and the highest standards of ethics and professionalism. An assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Hamilton also serves as deputy chief of the criminal division. He lives in Knoxville.

Timothy Moore was promoted to president, Allegacy Services LLC, at the Allegacy Federal Credit Union in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

1999L

Chrissy Clarke-Peckham opened The Law Office of Chrissy Clarke-Peckham in Charlotte, North Carolina. She focuses on indigent appointment cases, juvenile delinquency, adult criminal, and parent representation in abuse/neglect/dependency.

Charles James Jr. was elected to Williams Mullen’s board of directors. He is a partner in the firm’s litigation section and serves as co-chair of the white collar and investigations practice and the firearms industry group.

David Leshner received the John Marshall Award in the Trial of Litigation from the Department of Justice in November. The John Marshall Awards are the highest DOJ awards offered to attorneys, recognizing extraordinary contributions and excellence in specialized areas of legal performance. Leshner received the award for his work in the prosecution of multiple individuals who murdered a U.S. Border Patrol agent. An assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern

District of California, Leshner also serves as chief of the criminal division. He lives in Solana Beach, California, with his wife Shannon Kearns ’96L and their two sons.

Gamble T. Parks (’95) will join Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck’s corporate and business department as a shareholder in its Santa Barbara office. Parks is a certified specialist in estate planning, trust and probate law by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization.

Whitney Goodwin Bouknight joined the National Board of Examiners in Optometry in Charlotte as general counsel. David Freed joined Mayer Brown in New York City as a partner in the capital markets practice. He represents issuers and underwriters in public and private offerings of equity and debt securities in a number of industries, with a focus on real estate and REITs.

2005L

April Ballou was promoted to general counsel and VP of state regulatory affairs at the National Association of Water Companies in Philadelphia.

Ashley Everhart Pearson joined Tryon Management Group in Charlotte as general counsel.

2008L

Teddie Arnold (’03) was elected partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP, where he practices government contracts and construction in the Washington, D.C., office. He is also pursuing his LL.M. in government procurement from The George Washington University Law School. He and his wife, Maia, reside in Baltimore with their kids Emmy, 3, and Alex, 1.

Karah Gunther was promoted to vice president of external affairs and health policy at VCU and VCU Health System in Richmond.

Russell Kruse joined Premium Service Brands in Charlottesville as chief legal officer.

Srikanth Vadakapurapu was promoted to vice president, legal, at IKS Health in Mumbai, India. 10s

2010L

2000L

David D. Brown has written

“The Art of Business Wars,” featuring stories and lessons from history’s greatest business rivalries uncovered through hundreds of episodes of Wondery’s podcast ”Business Wars.”

Devon Munro opened Munro Law PC in Roanoke. The firm focuses on helping individuals and businesses succeed in disputes that require skilled negotiation or litigation in Virginia state and federal courts.

2001L

Spencer Cox was sworn in Jan. 4 as governor of Utah following his victory in the general election held in November. He is the state’s 18th governor.

2004L

Bridget Blinn-Spears was named member at Nexsen Pruet in Raleigh, North Carolina. She focuses on employment-related litigation.

Olubunmi Kusimo-Frazier was promoted to manager of magistrate services at the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia in Charleston, West Virginia. She was also recognized as a member of the 2020 Class of Generation Next: Top 40 under 40 by The State Journal.

Trenya Futrell Mason was inducted into W&L’s Alpha Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), the national leadership honor society, in May.

2006L

Janssen Evelyn was named one of the Maryland Daily Record’s 2021 Leadership in Law honorees. Evelyn currently works as an assistant chief administrative officer for Howard County, where he provides administrative oversight to agencies including the Office of Human Rights and Equity, the Office of Procurement and Central Fleet. Evelyn’s civic involvement includes board positions with the Howard County NAACP and the Howard County Conservancy, and he is a governor-appointed commissioner with the Maryland Commission of Civil Rights.

Chace Daley joined Sage Natural Resources in Tulsa as general counsel.

David Klass was promoted to partner at Fisher Phillips in Charlotte, North Carolina. He represents employers in a variety of employment matters in state and federal courts, as well as matters prosecuted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.

Lindsay Wise Wikle was promoted to partner at Hedrick Gardner in Charlotte. She focuses on workers’ compensation.

2009L

Katie Blaszak joined Winston & Strawn’s Washington, D.C., office as a partner. She focuses on mergers and acquisitions, new venture formations, joint ventures, investments, strategic partnerships and complex commercial transactions.

Ryan Decker was promoted to associate general counsel, payments, at Airbnb in San Francisco.

Berit Everhart has joined Asante in Eugene, Oregon, as senior corporate counsel.

Stewart Crosland was promoted to partner at Jones Day. He joined the Washington, D.C., office in 2017 and focuses on counseling clients engaged in the political process, elections and government investigations.

Erica Haggard Crosland joined Robinhood in December 2020 as principal counsel, litigation and investigations, from WilmerHale LLP, where she focused on securities enforcement matters and internal investigations. She and her husband, Stewart Crosland ’10L, live in Bethesda, Maryland, and have one son, Edward.

George Davis was promoted to counsel at McGuireWoods in Richmond. He focuses on intellectual property litigation, specifically patent litigation.

Courtney Gahm-Oldham joined the law firm Frost Brown Todd LLC as a member in Houston and was selected by her colleagues as a Houstonia Magazine Top Lawyer for Construction Law in 2020.

H. Scott Kelly was named partner at Troutman Pepper in Richmond. He focuses on complex litigation and business disputes, financial

PRESIDENT Michael H. Spencer ’96L Rimini Street Las Vegas

VICE PRESIDENT Kristin L. Ray ’96L Home Depot U.S.A., Inc. Atlanta

SECRETARY Suzanne Wade W&L Law Lexington

Calvin Awkward III ’06, ’09L Goldberg Segalla Baltimore

Anthony Briggs ’03L Darrow Mustafa Washington, D.C.

Molly Evans ’00L Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP Washington,

Spencer Cox ’01L Sworn in as 18th Governor of Utah

SPENCER COX ’01L was sworn in Jan. 4 as governor of Utah following his victory in the November 2020 general election. He is the state’s 18th governor.

Cox served the state as lieutenant governor from 2013-20. He was previously a member of the Utah House of Representatives, as well as city counselor and mayor of his hometown, Fairview. As lieutenant governor, Cox was in charge of some of the state’s biggest challenges, including overseeing elections and

services litigation and consumer litigation.

Christopher Riano was elected the inaugural chair of the New York State Bar Association’s LGBTQ law section.

Lauren Fisher White was elected partner of Christian & Barton LLP, a civil practice law firm in Richmond. She focuses on labor and employment counseling and litigation.

Richard Bruno (’06) was promoted to partner at Mozley, Finlayson & Loggins in Atlanta. He focuses on defense of insureds in the trucking, aviation, construction and premises arenas.

Jessica Guzik was promoted to senior brand lead at Shopify. She lives in Berlin, Germany.

Bill Larson (’08) was recognized by Delaware Today Magazine as the leading government affairs attorney in its 2020 Top Lawyer rankings. He is an associate with MG+M in Wilmington, Delaware.

Thomas Moran joined FedEx as a senior attorney in Irvine, California.

Aaron Sims was promoted to counsel at Potter Anderson & Corroon in Wilmington, Delaware. He focuses on corporate, complex commercial and alternative entity litigation.

2011L

Ryan Au joined Coinbase in Washington, D.C., as senior tax counsel.

Lethia Hammond was appointed to the Virginia Parole Board by Gov. Ralph Northam.

2012L

Koral Fusselman Alman was promoted to partner with The Van Winkle Law Firm in Asheville, North Carolina. She focuses on trusts and estates.

Ferrell Alman joined The Van Winkle Law Firm in Asheville, North Carolina, as an associate. He focuses on intellectual property law.

Alexandra Price Doggett joined Figma in Austin, Texas, as legal counsel.

Joy Lee joined the Republican State Leadership Committee as general counsel.

Jonathan Little was promoted to partner at Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC in Birmingham, Alabama.

John Scully (’09) joined Eller Tonnsen Bach in Greenville, South Carolina, as an associate. He concentrates on civil litigation and corporate matters, with an emphasis on business litigation and insurance defense.

William Underwood (’09) was promoted to partner with Jones Walker in Atlanta. He focuses on construction litigation, alternative dispute resolution, and contract drafting, review, and negotiation.

2013L

James T. Bailey was named partner with Williams Mullen in Richmond. He focuses on senior housing transactions.

Brandy Cannon joined the Department of Veterans Affairs in August 2020.

Katie Gray joined Mayer Brown in Houston as a litigator.

leading the state’s response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Cox defeated former governor and presidential candidate John Huntsman in a GOP primary challenge and went on to win the general election, earning 63.9% of the vote. He and his opponent Chris Peterson, a law professor at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, made news worldwide when just two weeks before the election they appeared together in an ad promoting civility and unity in the political process. The

Todd Heffner joined Troutman Pepper in Atlanta as an attorney. He focuses on construction law.

LeMont Joyner joined Alphadyne Asset Management in New York City as in-house counsel.

Kim Marston was among 30 Brooks Pierce attorneys recognized as industry leaders in the 2021 edition of North Carolina Super Lawyers.

Jessica Tracy joined Vimeo as vice president, associate general counsel. She lives in New York City.

2014L

Casey Coleman joined Blackburn, Conte, Shilling & Click P.C. in Richmond as a partner.

Amy Johnson joined Lewis Brisbois in Denver as an associate.

Maisie Osteen joined the Legal Aid Justice Center as an attorney with the civil rights and racial justice program. Prachi Gupta Sankalia joined BKD CPAs & Advisors in Dallas as a senior consultant, M&A tax.

Ryan Starks joined Gentry Locke in Richmond as an associate in the commercial litigation section.

2015L

Astrika Adams joined the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy in Washington, D.C., as assistant chief counsel.

Tunde Cadmus was promoted to director, corporate counsel, at Regeneron in New York City.

video ad has since been viewed nearly four million times.

Cox echoed the video’s sentiment during his inauguration ceremony, which was held against the backdrop of the famous red rock cliffs of southwest Utah.

“Conflict and passionate debate around ideas can be healthy, but contempt and contention will rot the souls of our nation and her people. And this division isn’t just ugly or unfortunate. It’s dangerous,” said Cox.

Jenna Callahan joined the Department of Justice as assistant U.S. attorney, Northern District of Florida.

Joey Connor IV joined Grant Thornton in Washington, D.C., as manager, WNTO tax legislative group.

Sean Domer joined Bush & Taylor in Suffolk, Virginia, as an associate.

After spending three years practicing law in Brazil, Thayer Case Ellis joined Keller and Heckman in Washington, D.C., as an associate. She focuses on food and drug law.

Zachary Furnald joined Aspect Advisors as a principal consultant. He will be supporting financial services innovators in the development of customized compliance solutions.

Marcus Greene joined Roop Xanttopoulos Babounakis in Fairfax, Virginia, as an associate. He focuses on family law.

Oscar Molina joined Parker and Lynch as an attorney recruiter. He resides in Huntington, West Virginia.

Ryan Redd joined the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas in Lubbock, Texas, as an assistant U.S. attorney.

Sukhmani Rekhi joined AppFolio in San Francisco as associate general counsel.

2016L

Ashley Barendse joined Alan Lescht and Associates in Washington, D.C., as an associate.

Brittany Dunn-Pirio joined the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney of Frederick County as an assistant commonwealth’s attorney.

Spencer Feldman joined Camden Securities Company in White Plains, New York, as a senior associate.

John Fitzgerald joined Matt O’Neill Real Estate in Charleston, South Carolina, as a realtor and licensed broker.

Brian Livingston joined the Wilkes Law Firm in Charleston, South Carolina, as an associate attorney.

2017L

Olivia Broderick joined Moore & Van Allen in Charleston, South Carolina, as an associate.

Charli Gibbs-Tabler joined Gibson Dunn & Crutcher in Washington, D.C., as an associate.

Kja Harper-Gopaul joined Bremer Whyte Brown & O’Meara in Newport Beach, California, as an associate attorney.

Tamra Harris joined Reed Smith’s Austin, Texas, office as a life sciences and health care associate.

Stacey LaRiviere joined Wiley Rein in Washington, D.C., as a litigation associate.

Amanda Lyons-Archambault joined KPMG’s M&A tax practice in Boston as a senior associate.

Clint Williams joined the JAG Corps in the Army Reserves. He continues to practice with Jeffers, Danielson, Sonn & Aylward P.S., in Wenatchee, Washington, where he focuses primarily on agribusiness, real estate and general business matters.

Nan Hannah ’93L Hannah Sheridan & Cochran Raleigh, North Carolina

Monika Jaensson ’93L Dinsmore & Shohl LLP Charleston, West Virginia

Toby McCoy ’92, ’95L Deputy Director, U.S. Army Tomah, Wisconsin

Virginia Lane Stitzer ’14L Troutman Pepper Richmond, Virginia

Joanna Heiberg Sutton ’13L Jones Day Atlanta

Ali Wilson ’95L Wilson Associates Trenton, New Jersey

Reggie Wright ’83L New Century Advisors Inc. Cary, North

2018L

Caitlyn Bates joined DuBois, Bryant & Campbell in Austin, Texas, as an associate. Her practice focuses on energy and environmental issues and commercial litigation.

Mark Bonin joined Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati as an associate, technology transactions, in Washington, D.C. He lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

Stephen Edwards joined Mette, Evans & Woodside as an associate attorney.

John Fluharty returned to the U.S. from London to join Latham & Watkins’ capital markets team as an associate in Washington, D.C.

Thomas Griffin III joined the Southern District of Alabama in Mobile as a judicial law clerk.

Colt Justice joined Apple in Denver as a global supply manager.

Katie Sheild joined the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City as a staff attorney.

2019L

Michael DiBiagio joined J.P. Morgan in New York City as an investment banking analyst.

Caden Hayes joined the North Carolina Attorney General’s Office as an assistant attorney general in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Sev Miller joined Pessin Katz Law in Towson, Maryland, as an associate.

WEDDINGS

OBITS

2020L

Emma Arnesen joined the border prosecution unit of the 63rd and 83rd Judicial Districts in Del Rio, Texas, as an assistant district attorney.

Talia Hughes joined Morgan, Lewis & Bockius as an associate in New York City.

Taylor Lawrence joined Ropes and Gray’s IP litigation group in Washington, D.C., as an associate.

Maria Liberopoulos joined Schulte Roth & Zabel in New York City as an associate.

Carrie Macon joined PennStuart in Abingdon, Virginia, as an associate in the firm’s insurance defense and commercial litigation practice groups.

Christine McLinn joined Reinhart in its Milwaukee office. She is an associate in the intellectual property practice group, where she focuses on patent counseling.

Simon Michnick (’17) joined the real estate finance group at Ballard Spahr in Baltimore.

Mary Kate Nicholson joined Eversheds Sutherland in Washington, D.C., as an associate.

Alexandria Taylor joined Troutman Pepper in Washington, D.C., as an associate.

Megan Williams joined Lowenstein Sandler’s corporate practice group in Roseland, New Jersey, as an associate.

Jessica Girvan ‘15L and Bret Marfut ‘15L were married on Jan. 9, 2021, in front of Lee Chapel.

T. William Sommer ’47L, of Loveland, Colorado, died on Dec. 8, 2020. He served in the Air Force during World War II. He was an attorney with the IRS for 28 years. He belonged to Sigma Nu.

Lee R. Redmond Jr. ’45, ’49L, of Columbus, Georgia, died on Feb. 13. He served in the Army Air Corps. He had a long legal career specializing in real estate, retiring from Thompson, Redmond, Nicolson and Ray at 86. He was father to Lee Redmond III ’74 and uncle to Steve Hawley ’71. He belonged to Delta Tau Delta.

BIRTHS AND ADOPTIONS

Christopher S. Colby ’05, ’08L and his wife, Holly, welcomed a son, Pierce, in February 2020. Pierce joins his brother, Stuart, at the family home in Stafford, Virginia.

Courtney Gahm-Oldham ’10L and her husband, JT Oldham, a son, Aiden Alan, on Aug. 14, 2020. He joins his brothers Von, 6, and Lawson, 4. They live in Houston.

Daniel Howell ’13L and his wife, Victoria, a daughter, Charlotte Anne, on Jan. 13. The family reside in Richmond.

Adventurer in Law

and, with $400 in his pocket, boarded an Amtrak train for New York with the dream of becoming a model. And he made it, too.

Arthur A. Birney ’50, ’52L, of Edgewater, Maryland, died on Jan. 14. He served in the Army and Air Force. He was the managing general partner of Washington Brick and Terra Cotta Co. He belonged to Sigma Chi.

Raymond W. Haman ’52L, of Langley, Washington, died on Oct. 30, 2020. He served in the Marines during World War II. He practiced law in Seattle for 39 years.

Roger J. Perry ’52, ’54L, of Charles Town, West Virginia, died on Dec. 4, 2020. He served in the Army Judge Advocate Corps and practiced law for 35 years. He belonged to Lambda Chi Alpha.

John T. Evans Jr. ’57, ’59L, of Lynchburg, Virginia, died on Dec. 12, 2020. He served in the Marines. He retired from Rubatex Corp. in 1992. He belonged to Sigma Nu.

John D. Marsh ’57, ’59L, of Hillsboro, Virginia, died on Feb. 1. He served in the Air Force. He was a financial consultant with Wheat First Securities and mayor of Purcellville, Virginia, from 1994–2002. He was father to Dave Marsh ’86. He belonged to Pi Kappa Phi. R. C. Gunnar Miller ’59L, of Jacksonville, Florida, died on Dec. 1, 2020. He had a private law practice and celebrated his 50th year before the bar in 2010. He belonged to Pi Kappa Alpha.

George E. Anthou ’60L, of Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, died on Dec. 2, 2020. He served in the Army and was an attorney for more than 50 years. He was father to Greg Anthou ’96.

Alexander R. Fitzenhagen ’60, ’62L , of Dallas, died on March 13. He retired from the financial services industry. He was father to Lex Fitzenhagen Jr. ’85 and Lin Fitzenhagen ’97. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi.

Philip H. Shafer ’65L, of Mansfield, Ohio, died on Nov. 8, 2020. He served in the Navy. He was a former attorney in Ashland, Ohio. He belonged to Phi Delta Theta. Andrew Wierengo III ’68L, of Muskegon, Michigan, died on Dec. 30, 2020. He served in the Army. He practiced law for 25 years, then served for 17 years as the 60th District Court Judge.

Bruce C. Leckie ’69L, of Charleston, West Virginia, died on Jan. 3. He was a retired trust officer, serving the banking community for 38

CHRISTOPHER RIANO ’10L acknowledges an “adventurous streak.”

That’s one way to characterize his path from living out of his Dodge Dynasty in a Pittsburgh park to modeling in the New York fashion industry to opening his own New York City law firm to serving as the youngest general counsel for a New York state agency to being elected inaugural chair of the New York State Bar Association’s LGBTQ Law Section and tackling his latest challenge as president of the Center for Civic Education.

Surely “fearless” is equally apt.

Riano was in his second year studying engineering at Carnegie Mellon when he had to live in his car for a time. A year later, he packed two suitcases

He transferred to Columbia University, dividing his time between modeling and classes before enrolling full-time in 2005. He was bound for business school before he won an election as chair of the student affairs caucus of the university senate. He found himself representing Columbia’s entire student body during the nationally renowned free speech controversy that roiled the university. Based on that experience, Riano said, “I became fascinated by the intricacies of how government works and how the law functions.

I knew then law was a better path.”

Riano chose W&L for law school for former Dean Rodney Smolla’s constitutional law focus and because he’d have a chance to build his own experience at a small school. That proved truer than he’d even hoped when, as a 2L, he worked jury trials with the Montgomery County (Maryland) State’s Attorneys Office.

“Normally only third-year students are permitted to make court appearances,” said Mary Natkin ’85, emerita clinic professor, who recalled Riano’s uncommon experience in her externship class. “The prosecuting office

moved for permission for Christopher to appear. I specifically recall his participation and presentation in the seminar, which were fabulous, and his supervisor’s evaluations, which were equally so.”

After a postgraduate year clerking for Judge John Philip Miller ’73L of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City and a few years helming his own firm, Riano joined Drohan Lee LLP as a partner and head of the strategic practice group, lecturing in constitutional law and government at Columbia and chairing Columbia’s Rules of University Conduct Committee, where he was soon embroiled in the university’s free speech issues all over again.

Though he loved private practice, Riano left in 2016 for a series of positions in New York state government — first as an administrative law judge, then as general counsel to the New York State Liquor Authority and finally as an assistant counsel to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.

During this time, he also coauthored a book, “Marriage Equality: From Outlaw to In-Laws,” with William N. Eskridge Jr. of Yale Law School. A history of same-sex marriage equality in the U.S., the book recently won the 2021 Silver Gavel Award for Media and the Arts from the

American Bar Association, one of its highest honors.

Last June, Riano took over leadership of the Center for Civic Education — the largest and most respected nonprofit helping promote engaged civic competence to K–12 students and teachers — days after George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis. He is only the second person to lead the organization in its 55-year history. Six months after being named president, Riano was fielding media calls asking for guidance on how teachers could help students make sense of the Capitol insurrection.

“I am fortunate to be leading this historic organization when there is renewed focus on ensuring that we do better as a country in civic education,” Riano said. “It’s never too early, and it’s never too late, to start a lifelong conversation to celebrate the strengths and repair the weaknesses in our democratic republic.”

His experiences have reinforced for Riano how formidable this latest job will be. “I do not fear the unknown,” he says. “In fact, I enjoy the challenge that comes with setting a goal that is important to me and then achieving it.”

The latest turn in the winding career path of Christopher Riano ’10L finds him leading a national effort to improve civic education and engagement.

BY JEFF HANNA

years. He was uncle to Shawn Copeland ’90, ’95L.

David J. Kantor ’71L, of Chantilly, Virginia, died on Sept. 22, 2019. He served in the Army. After law school he had a successful career as a legal officer in the Coast Guard.

Thomas J. Czelusta ’73L, of Barboursville, Virginia, died on Dec. 7, 2019.

Larry W. Fifer ’73L, of Lewes, Delaware, died on Feb. 28. He served in the Army. He was an

attorney, predominantly in Sussex County, for 48 years.

James E. Patterson ’73L, of Ellsworth, Maine, died on Jan. 16. He served in the Navy and practiced law for over 40 years.

David K. Higgins ’70, ’75L, of Charleston, West Virginia, died on Feb. 13. He served in the Army. He was an attorney, one of the founders of Robinson & McElwee PLLC, who spent his entire working career in Charleston. He was

cousin to Kemble White III ’66, ’69L and Kemble White IV ’94. He belonged to Phi Gamma Delta.

M. Pierce Rucker II ’75L, of Glen Allen, Virginia, died on Feb. 13. He had a 41-year career as a trial lawyer with Sands Anderson in Richmond. He was cousin to Lewis Powell III ’74, Hannah Powell ’18 and Luke Powell IV ’20. He belonged to Beta Theta Pi.

Dana J. Bolton ’86L, of Charlotte, Vermont, and Montclair, New Jersey, died on May 16, 2020. He was a corporate lawyer in New York City for 26 years, retiring in 2012.

Paul A. Morrison ’87L, of Warrenton, Virginia, died on Nov. 3, 2020. He was founding and managing partner at Morrison, Ross and Whelan Attorneys at Law.

William R. Harbison ’87, ’90L, of Columbia, South Carolina,

died on Jan. 24. He was a partner with Gallivan, White and Boyd. He belonged to Sigma Alpha Epsilon.

R. Christopher Lawson ’93L, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, died on April 1. He was a partner in the Friday, Eldredge & Clark law firm.

Daryl L. Rice ’98L, of Fairfax, Virginia, died on Feb. 8. He was an attorney with Sidley Austin LLP in the firm’s energy practice.

From Courtroom to Camera, Advocacy Fuels Brian Buckmire’s Drive for Justice

A public defender with the Legal Aid Society of New York City, Buckmire ’14L is also the host of “Law & Crime Daily.”

BY JEFF HANNA

Network,” Buckmire said. “We were talking one day, and she told me she’d seen me in court and thought I’d be good on TV. I told her she was crazy, but that I’d try it.”

so you and others can change what’s happening. If someone is going to give you a bigger platform to do that, why not take it?’ ”

be on because it’s ruining his life. You just hope you’re not going to see that person again.”

BRIAN BUCKMIRE ’14L was chatting with a fellow attorney in a Brooklyn courtroom one day when, out of the blue, she asked if he’d like to be on TV.

That was early in 2019. Buckmire had been working as a public defender with The Legal Aid Society in New York City for four years and had just been named the youngest attorney on its homicide defense task force.

“I’d developed a friendship with a private defense attorney who was one of the hosts on the Law and Crime

Before long, Buckmire was making regular appearances on the Law and Crime Network and several ABC news shows. He became a regular contributor with a range of assignments — from reporting on the Harvey Weinstein rape trial to hosting “Justice & Peace,” which premiered in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder. In November 2020, Buckmire was named lead host of “Law & Crime Daily.”

It was not how Buckmire imagined his career unfolding.

“I was of the mindset — you’re a public defender. You’re on the front lines, and if you don’t have dirt and blood and mud on your face at the end of the day, then you’re not really a public defender,” he said. “My wife opened my eyes when she told me, ‘What you do is advocacy. You tell people what’s going on in the court

In a June 2020 “Justice & Peace” episode about Elijah McClain, the 23-year-old Black man who died after being placed in a chokehold by police in Colorado, Buckmire tearfully related a conversation with his 20-year-old brother: “He said, ‘Brian, you’re my older brother. You’re a lawyer. You’re on these TV shows. How do I not become a hashtag?’ And I don’t even have the answers for him. It becomes a situation where you can’t even say, ‘Do this, and do this, and you’ll be okay.’ Because you watch this, and there’s no answer.”

Buckmire gained six acquittals in six jury trials, including one for attempted murder, and has won several bench trials. “You usher clients through this process and have a real effect on people’s lives,” he said. “Of the cases I’ve done so far, what’s most impactful is helping a drug addict get off this substance that he doesn’t really want to

Struggle and Triumph

As the new general counsel for the Carolina Hurricanes, Nigel Wheeler ’15L has fulfilled his dream of a legal career in professional sports.

BY KATIE DOAR

Wheeler got the job after investing in a new house in Dallas. He had an infant and 4-year-old child. Add the impending pandemic to that scenario, and the timing couldn’t have been worse.

But in many ways, Wheeler expected that. “I’ve always been a big meditation guy,” Wheeler explained. “And I’ve studied the careers of a lot of different people in the sports world. I’ve learned that, if you have an opportunity, it’s going to be terrible timing.”

learned from studying athletes. “A lot of [athletes] talk about visualizing what they’re going to do before they are going to do it, he said. “And it seems that the mind can’t separate fantasy from reality.”

He often works with West Indian immigrants and, as necessary, can converse in Jamaican patois or in French. “I’ve found advocacy to be better where clients think, ‘Hey, you look like me. You just have a suit, and you’re going to help me,’ ” he said.

Buckmire treats his clients the way he treated his former soccer teammates and views his court trials like matches.

“With teammates, you develop a sense that you would bleed for that person. If you’ll bleed for your client that way, then getting only 10 hours sleep in a week as you prepare for a case is nothing special, particularly if you have the law and the facts on your side,” he said. “The adversarial system reminds me of what I lost in not being a soccer player anymore. Preparing for a trial reminds me of training for a tournament — it’s that same competition that was bred into me.”

NIGEL WHEELER ’15L started working as general counsel for the Carolina Hurricanes at the beginning of the pandemic. So, in addition to dealing with normal legal issues, such as property law and contracts, he writes COVID-19 disclaimers and serves as the team contact tracer.

Working in sports had been Wheeler’s dream since he entered law school, but getting a job was not as easy as he expected. “I had tons of rejections,” Wheeler said.

After graduation, he took a job in mergers and acquisitions before shifting to public finance, but he still imagined himself walking into the office he wanted — another skill he

Wheeler made dozens of connections with people who could help him. He learned how to network at W&L Law and noted that, for him, this was the school’s biggest value. “Every interaction you have at school — with faculty, folks in the Brief Stop and other students — will easily translate into every other professional networking experience,” he explained. “When I meet people, I really try to get to know them. You can learn so much from how someone describes the things that they love.”

Wheeler was a guest on the official podcast for the Carolina Hurricanes, called “Canes Cast,” which has a series that seeks to “amplify Black

voices” within the hockey league. In the podcast, Wheeler suggested that hockey needs to become accessible at a preprofessional level if the sport wants to diversify on the ice and in the front office. Fees for ice time and hockey gear can be prohibitive.

But if more and more adults and children are invited to play or enjoy the sport, Wheeler imagines that it will take off with all kinds of people.

On the side, Wheeler — who took jobs in broadcast journalism all over the U.S. after college and toured the world with a reggae rock band — has his own podcast, called “Struggle and Triumph,” about people who worked hard to get where they are, and people who have “crashed and burned.”

Now, after years of working and dreaming, he’s become the general counsel for a national sports team.

Struggle and triumph, indeed.

2021 LAW ALUMNI AWARDS

Outstanding Alumnus/a Award

– Malinda Dunn ’81L

Division, Joint Readiness Training Center and XVIII Airborne Corps. She was also chief of personnel for the Army JAG Corps. Her field assignments included tours in Afghanistan in 2003 and Iraq in 2005.

Dunn’s awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit and the Meritorious Service Medal. She earned the Iraq and Afghanistan Campaign Medals as well as the Korea Defense Service Medal and the Multinational Force and Observers Medal. She is a graduate of both airborne and jumpmaster school.

DUNN IS THE EXECUTIVE director of the American Inns of Court Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia. Previously, she served for more than 28 years in the Army Judge Advocate General Corps, retiring as a brigadier general.

Directly commissioned into the JAG Corps in July 1981, she served as a prosecutor for the 2nd Infantry Division and the 82nd Airborne Division, as well as chief of criminal law for the 4th Infantry Division. After a stint in the Army’s procurement fraud division, she served in the Army Special Operations Command and as a staff judge advocate at the 82nd Airborne Division, 25th Infantry

Dunn serves on the board of governors of The Army and Navy Club and on the board of trustees of Randolph-Macon College. She is a past CLE chair for the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Legal Assistance for Military Personnel and past president of both the Judge Advocates Foundation and the Judge Advocates Association. She served on the W&L Law Council and as a member of the Response Systems to Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel. She speaks frequently on leadership, and she has been recognized as a distinguished alumna by Randolph-Macon College.

Young

Volunteer

of the Year

Award – Emily Tichenor ’16L

TICHENOR HAS BEEN AN active member of the Young Alumni Council for several years. She contacts admitted students, congratulating them on their admission and offering to answer questions, and she is one of the first to volunteer to take on additional students. She has been a great resource for students seeking career advice and has given significant time to talk with students and help them along their career paths.

Tichenor is an associate with Polsinelli in Denver, where she focuses on labor and employment counseling.

Volunteer of the Year Award – Mark Williams ’81L

WILLIAMS RETIRED AS general counsel to the Roanoke Regional Airport Commission as well as the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority. Over the years, he has served on several class reunion committees and as class agent. For a number of years, he has taught the Local Government Law Practicum. He also participates with professors from W&L and other law schools in preparing suggested answers for the Virginia Bar Exam. His son Glenn graduated from W&L in 2018.

SUPPORTS OUR SUCCESS:

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While in Lewis Hall, our students work hard, make lifelong friends and strengthen the fabric of our community and the reputation of the law school.

Make the future as bright as possible for our students and our unique law community. Make your gift or pledge to the Law Annual Fund today.

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