The VLW Blog

A Danville lawyer who was a no show for oral arguments in two appeals before the Court of Appeals of Virginia has been publicly held in contempt and banned from practicing before that court for two years.
The court today issued a published order imposing sanctions on attorney Jon I. Davey.
According to the order, Davey failed […]

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The Virginia State Bar has imposed a one-year suspension on the law license of Anne Marston Lynch, the Suffolk lawyer who was publicly castigated by the Virginia Court of Appeals for repeated lapses in the handling of a criminal appeal.
The Court of Appeals, in a Feb. 3 published order, disbarred Lynch indefinitely from practice before […]

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Former Christiansburg lawyer Gerard Marks has agreed to serve 11 months in jail for forging official documents to make clients think he had done legal work for them.
The agreement was worked out just before a scheduled sentencing hearing, according to The Roanoke Times.  An investigation showed Marks had forged the signatures of Circuit Judges Bobby […]

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A Norfolk grand jury has indicted Kentucky lawyer Erick A. Bowman on charges of stealing from the firm of Kalfus & Nachman where he worked until last year.
The Virginian-Pilot reports Bowman has been involved in a legal dispute with the Kalfus firm since he left in May 2008.
Posted by Peter Vieth

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A lawyer who stole nearly $4 million by “settling” personal injury cases without the knowledge of his injured clients was sentenced today to 11 years in jail.  Stephen T. Conrad, 40, of Woodbridge, also was ordered by U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton to serve three years supervised release and to pay restitution to his […]

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A Christiansburg lawyer who admitted forging legal documents and passing them off as genuine may avoid a lengthy prison sentence.
According to The Roanoke Times, a special prosecutor agreed to recommend no more than two years imprisonment in exchange for today’s seven guilty pleas from former attorney Gerard Marks.
Marks admitted to forging judges’ signatures on documents […]

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Former Caroline County Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey Latney Jr. has made a deal with the Virginia State Bar to settle ethics charges against him.
Under an agreed disposition, Latney has received a public reprimand with terms for violating rules relating to the safekeeping of client property and responsibilities for nonlawyer staff. Latney’s longtime secretary embezzled an estimated […]

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The Virginia State Bar has put together a web page listing all of the various programs and proposals aimed at protecting the public from dishonest or neglectful lawyers.  Bar president Manuel A. Capsalis, who has made client protection a leading issue for his term, recently brought together various committees to address reforms.

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The Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board has revoked the law license of Christiansburg attorney Gerard R. Marks.
Marks, who faces trial on 21 felony counts related to his law practice, consented to the revocation, according to a VSB news release. The release says Marks admitted accepting client money without performing the work, issuing a purported […]

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Payee notification of insurance checks and random audits of trust accounts are two proposals under active study as the Virginia State Bar this month convened a meeting to deal solely with protecting the public from dishonest lawyers.
As we reported last month, recent attorney defalcations in Virginia have been costly to clients and others.  The damage […]

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