Special Features

William T. Wilson

Bill Wilson of Covington has been practicing law since 1963.

He has built a very successful plaintiff’s practice. As Frank O. Brown Jr. put it, “as a distinguished, respected and zealous litigator, he has successfully helped thousands of clients in being compensated in personal injury, wrongful death and other cases.”

This year alone, he and Russell Updike and Nolan Nicely — his colleagues at Wilson, Updike & Nicely in Covington – have reached several large settlements, including an $8 million settlement for a badly injured tractor-trailer driver.

Wilson served in the Virginia House of Delegates for 15 years, from 1974 to 1989. There, he was a member of committees covering general law, corporations and employment; he was chair of subcommittees covering insurance and workers’ compensation.

In recent years, he has turned his attention to the Virginia State Bar.

Wilson served on the VSB Council for seven years, ending his service there in 2000. This year marks his completion of his term as immediate past chairman of the Senior Lawyers Conference.

The SLC is one of the newest sections within the VSB, but it perhaps the fastest growing. Just as lawyers are members of the Young Lawyers Conference until they hit the age of 36, a lawyer automatically becomes a member of the SLC when he or she reaches the age of 55.

The SLC currently has more than 12,000 members.

Wilson’s tenure at the Senior Lawyers Conference was distinguished by the development of a Senior Citizens Law Day program. Brown, Wilson’s colleague on the SLC, said Wilson “developed, implemented and disseminated a prototype plan for” Senior Citizens Law Day.

The program is one that local bar associations can take and adapt locally. It is designed to inform senior citizens about their legal rights.

Wilson told Virginia Lawyers Weekly that the idea for a senior day started locally. The Alleghany-Bath-Highland Bar Association and the League of Older Americans began a program that Wilson used as a blueprint. The SLC has produced a senior citizens handbook that served as a tool for discussion.

Wilson said putting on the program was highly satisfying.

“It was a wonderful experience,” he said. “You can’t believe how thirsty those senior citizens were for information.”

In the past year or two, a number of local bars have hosted a Senior Citizens Law Day, and that number will no doubt grow.

Wilson is the chair-elect of the VSB’s Conference of Local Bar Associations, so expect to see the emphasis on providing information to senior citizens to continue. 

Biography

Education: B.A., Hampden-Sydney College, 1960; LL.B., University of Virginia law school, 1963

Practice Area: Personal Injury

Achievement: Concluded term as past chairman of VSB Senior Lawyers Conference

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