The VLW Blog

The Virginia State Bar, the Virginia Bar Association and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association have endorsed candidates for the State Corporation Commission vacancy created by the retirement of Commissioner Theodore V. Morrison Jr.

The VSB’s judicial nominations committee told Gov. Timothy M. Kaine that it found four candidates to be highly qualified:

- Philip R. deHaas, counsel to the SCC

- James C. Dimitri, a partner at McGuireWoods in Richmond

- JoAnne L. Nolte, a partner in The Conrad Firm in Richmond

- Michael D. Thomas, an SCC hearing examiner

It found Julia A. Lake, an attorney with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Richmond Circuit Judge Richard D. Taylor Jr. to be qualified.

The VBA and VTLA endorsed all those candidates except Lake. Committees for those organizations based their endorsements on a background investigation and review of materials submitted by the candidates.

The VSB committee interviewed the candidates in addition to reviewing materials and conducting background checks. It submitted cover letters and summaries to Kaine detailing its findings.

A search committee has recommended that Senior Assistant Bar Counsel Edward L. Davis head the disciplinary system of Virginia State Bar.

Davis, 55, would succeed George W. Chabalewski, who is stepping down July 19 after two years in the job.

Davis has been an assistant bar counsel for more than 14 years and had worked previously in private practice and as a prosecutor in York County after six years of active duty in the Army JAG Corps.

He continued his military career in the Army reserves and earned a master’s degree in strategic studies from the Army War College. He is a colonel in the reserves and expects to retire from the military in September.

Davis, a native of Richmond, is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and the University of Richmond law school.

Karen A. Gould, VSB executive director, said Davis’ leadership and managerial experience with the VSB and the army were key factors in his selection by the search committee headed by VSB President Howard W. Martin Jr.

The appointment of Davis is subject to the approval of the attorney general and the VSB Council.

Bar counsel, the formal title for the head of the VSB’s Professional Regulation department, directs the agency’s efforts on lawyer discipline, legal ethics, lawyer advertising and solicitation and the unauthorized practice of law.

Five new members of Virginia State Bar Council prevailed in contested mail ballot elections in the 2nd, 4th, 13th, 14th and 18th circuits. In addition, George W. Shanks moved from an ex officio position as head of the Senior Lawyers Conference to the elected representative of the 26th Circuit in a three-way race there.

A memo from the VSB has those selections as well as new members elected at meetings in the 10th and 15th circuits and in uncontested mail ballots in the 9th and 19th circuits, where Philip G. Gardner was elected to succeed his brother, Benjamin R. Gardner, who died last year during his second three-year term on council.

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 the case did not accept the agreement immediately.

Only two of the seven women involved knew about the agreement with Mizelle, who is the former mayor of Suffolk. After a teleconference yesterday, the panel gave the bar additional time to contact the others. A different panel rejected a deal in February which would have suspended Mizelle’s license for three years.

The Virginian-Pilot has details.