Let's face it, lawyers evoke mixed emotions. They can be saintly stalwarts for the truth, as Webster believes. Or, as Shakespeare suggests, they can be argumentative sleazeballs whose only moral compass is winning the case. As with all cartoonish portraits, these stereotypes are inherently false and unfair. Sure there are bad actors, but there are plenty of great lawyers out there. After a six-month-long process of surveyings and balloting, Virginia Business has found nearly 300 of them — the most effective lawyers in the state as identified by their peers.

As a business publication, Virginia Business has traditionally highlighted the activities of entrepreneurs and executives. With this special feature, we have the opportunity to acknowledge the contribution of the legal profession, home to some of the keenest intellects in Virginia's business, civic and political life. We have broken down the Legal Elite into 10 broad practice areas from information technology to family law, and we've profiled leading lawyers in each.

Virginia can boast of an illustrious legal lineage. Many of the most important laws in the country — not to mention the U.S. Constitution and the

Bill of Rights — had their roots in the Old Dominion. The ideals of liberty and rule of law, so dear to the legal profession, were hatched in the Commonwealth. So, too, unfortunately, were opposing ideals that found their utterance in Jim Crow and other laws designed to disenfranchise minorities, but the profession redeemed itself in the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.

In any event, Virginia is lawyer-rich. Some of the top law schools in the country are located within our borders — most notably the University of Virginia and the College of William & Mary. The state also boasts other fine schools such as Washington & Lee, the University of Richmond, George Mason, Regent

and, most recently, the Appalachian School of Law. Many of their graduates have settled in the Old Dominion. All told, roughly 20,000 lawyers are licensed to practice law in Virginia, and that doesn't include hundreds, if not thousands, of others who live in Northern Virginia and practice their craft in the nation's capital.

To prepare our survey, Virginia Business sought the help of The Virginia Bar Association, a venerable voluntary professional group that represents some 5,500 lawyers in the state. After VBA review, we sent out two rounds of ballots in the late summer and early fall and drew our list from nearly 800 respondents. We asked the lawyers to nominate candidates as the best lawyers in as many as 10 categories. They could not nominate themselves. They could nominate lawyers from their own firms, but we gave better scores to lawyers they nominated from other firms.

What did we find out? Among other things, that the legal profession in the state is still centered in Richmond. Even though there's growing specialization, there's still considerable consolidation to let mega-firms offer one-stop shopping. Richmond's white shoe Mays & Valentine law firm, for instance, is merging with Atlanta-based Troutman Sanders. Even so, Hunton & Williams of Richmond remains the biggest law firm between Washington and Atlanta and still a major power in its own right. Meanwhile, law firms in Northern Virginia are coming on strong to serve the burgeoning high tech industry there. There's been considerable growth in once arcane fields such as information technology and intellectual property as high tech becomes ever more important. Northern Virginia lawyers are in the forefront of the trend and are certain to grow in stature as the industry expands.

— Peter Galuszka

Virginia Business - December 2000