The VLW Blog

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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The Virginia State Bar and Suffolk lawyer Johnnie Mizelle were preparing for a disciplinary hearing before a three-judge panel next Monday when they reached a deal: Mizelle would consent to a five-year suspension of his law license to settle charges that he groped and solicited a number of female clients.
But the judges in […]

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The state Board of Medicine has a backlog of disciplinary complaints that has reached 2,000 cases.
To whittle it down, the board will streamline its disciplinary procedures, reports The Associated Press.
Many of the cases in the glut do not involve a substantial risk to patients, such as advertising complaints. The disciplinary staff has been […]

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