Jim McElhaney’s 25-year run as Litigation columnist for the ABA Journal will come to a close this fall. During those years, McElhaney’s straightforward advice on trial practice became one of the most popular features in the magazine. To commemorate McElhaney’s contributions, the Journal is reprinting some of his “greatest hits” from the past quarter-century. This article originally appeared in the Journal’s September 1991 issue under the headline “Professionally Speaking.” It was humiliating. The young lawyer had put in more than a hundred hours on the brief. He had a novel interpretation of the appliance safety act that he was urging…

In this dispute between two Virginia lawyers who successively represented a family in a civil dispute with a neighbor, an Alexandria U.S. District Court dismisses the first lawyer’s suit alleging tortious interference with contract and civil conspiracy against the second lawyer hired by the family. After the family hired the second lawyer, the first lawyer requested [...]

A parent involved in a no-fault divorce would enjoy a presumption favoring joint physical custody of the children under a bill introduced for the 2012 General Assembly session. House Bill 84 was introduced by Del. David Albo, R-Fairfax. The measure would establish a rebuttable presumption that parents in uncontested divorces should be awarded joint physical custody [...]

Glenn C. Lewis, a leading Northern Virginia divorce lawyer and former president of the Virginia Bar Association, has had his law license yanked by the Virginia State Bar for ignoring its demand for information. The Virginia State Bar administratively suspended Lewis’s license on Dec. 27 for failing to comply with a VSB subpoena duces tecum, according [...]

A mother whose child was fathered by her live-in boyfriend through assisted conception cannot prevent the boyfriend from asking a court to recognize him as the father, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled last week. Under the Virginia statutory scheme that governs parentage through sperm or egg donation, a donor is not the parent of [...]

(AP) Texas Gov. Rick Perry filed an emergency motion last Wednesday in federal court seeking to require Virginia’s Board of Elections to place his name on the ballot for the state Republican presidential primary. Perry failed last week to meet Virginia’s requirements that each candidate receive 10,000 signatures of registered voters, with 400 from each of [...]

When the 2012 General Assembly convenes next month, expect to see several bills designed to change the time-tested way that people in the commonwealth keep informed about their government. The bills would change Virginia’s laws on public notices, moving them from the printed pages of newspapers across the commonwealth to electronic websites maintained by local governments. Public [...]

Although a property owner says the antique vehicle collection on his Fairfax County property is his hobby, the Fairfax Circuit Court upholds the Board of Zoning Appeals decision that the collection is an illegal junk yard under the local zoning ordinance. The owner complains the BZA did not make specific findings of fact in ruling on [...]

Senior partners want to retire. Emerging leaders want a greater stake in their companies and a say in their direction. Everybody wants some assurance of financial stability now and in the future. In good times, funding retirement and leadership transition is complex. In lean times, when there’s less to go around, a [...]

For Andrea, a past decision to ensure her future in law has left her in a stressed and distressful present. Concerned over how it might affect her job prospects, she would not allow use of her real name. And there is reason for concern: She’s been laid off twice since her 2009 law school graduation, including from a position where she earned $20 an hour at a small firm practicing as a licensed attorney. For the 29-year-old, who’s supported herself since college, the financial repercussions of law school may amount to the worst investment of her life, despite a degree…