Welcome Judge Clemens

From a Friday, April 25, 2008 Roanoke Times email update: "Chris Clemens has been chosen to temporarily fill the vacated General District Court judgeship of Julian Raney, who retired. Clemens, a Salem attorney and city councilman, said he learned today that circuit court judges in the 23rd division chose him over his chief competitor for the job, Roanoke Commonwealth's Attorney Donald Caldwell. Clemens will serve in a circuit that includes Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem, until the next General Assembly session. State legislators, who deadlocked over filling the position this year, are scheduled to make a permanent appointment during their next session. Clemens has 30 days to take an oath for his temporary appointment. In the meantime, Clemens said he will help find jobs elsewhere for his employees and other attorneys for his clients. Once he takes the oath, he will no longer be eligible to serve on Salem's city council."

Judge Clemens received the nomination of the Roanoke BarAssociation. Pursuant to our bylaws (Article XXVII Section 10): "Active members of the Association, except members of the General Assembly not participating in the meeting, shall be pledged to the support of the person thus endorsed."

Congratulations to Judge Clemens, and I hope that the General Assembly will do the right thing next year and appoint him to a full term.

Supreme Court rules in Wilton-Peakwood case

In a case of local interest to both lawyers and local government, the Supreme Court of Virginia ruled on Friday on the challenge to the development on top of Peakwood Drive. The Court held that the Peakwood residents who challenged the City's grant of certain exceptions to the developer lacked standing. Here is the decision (link to PDF). Here is the Roanoke Times article. The article reminded me to add a link to Steve Emmert's excellent Virginia Appellate News site. I have also updated the Virginia Lawyer's Weekly Blog to its new address. It looks like the address change has been accompanied by an increased posting frequency.

News from the April 8 Meeting

Our member Peter Vieth has joined the staff of Virginia Lawyer's Weekly. Peter attended our membership meeting yesterday (April 8 2008) at the Shenandoah Club and wrote this post on the VLW Blog about the remarks of Senator Ralph Smith, who told the Association (at least I think he told the association) that bar association endorsements of judicial candidates should not be considered, because such endorsements are the functional equivalent of "picking your own boss." This is an interesting and novel position, particularly when one considers that bar endorsements are not legislative appointments.

Going Live Early

Today the Board of the Association agreed to allow me to go live with this blog (temporarily called the "President-Elect's Blog" until June). It will be linked to the official site of the Roanoke Bar Association. Welcome and have a look around.

Book Review

Over Spring Break I had a chance to read Roanoke, Virginia, 1882-1912: Magic City of the New South by Rand Dotson. (Link is to Amazon). The Roanoke Times published this article about Mr. Dotson and the book when the book was published in December of last year. The book was very well done, and a lot more readable than I was expecting (considering that it was based on a PhD. dissertation). I reviewed the book on Amazon, if you are interested in my impressions. Lawyers are not very prominent in the book, but there are a couple of facts that I need to mention in chronicling the history of our Bar.

Roanoke's First Black Attorney: "Andrew Jackson Oliver, the city's first African-American Attorney, opened a practice in 1890. He and his wife Susan, a graduate of Hampton Institute and a teacher at the Third Ward "colored school," lived on First Street Northwest. Oliver's office, in the white business section of downtown, also housed his real estate and development firm, the Roanoke Building and Land Company." (Dotson at 110).

1890's Lawyer Baseball Team: In a section concerning Roanoke's love for baseball in the 1890s, Dotson mentions that "local lawyers challenged the city's printers to a game." (Dotson at 113).

History of the Roanoke Bar Association-- An Introduction

During my term, one of my blog features will be posts about the History of the Roanoke Bar Association. The Association as currently established dates back to 1925. (Here is a list of Presidents (PDF link) back to that date.) However, there were predecessor organizations, also called the Roanoke Bar Association. I will go back as far as I can.

A key source for these posts will be A History of the City of Roanoke, by Raymond P. Barnes. The book was published in 1968. Mr. Barnes (I believe) was a retired Roanoke Times reporter who was given access to the archives of the Roanoke Times. His book is an incredible resource, long out of print. (I googled it this morning and saw a copy on sale for $237). There are copies in the Main Branch of the Roanoke Library, but I don't believe that they circulate. Allegedly, it is scheduled to be reprinted, with a new index, by the History Museum of Western Virginia in the near future. Mr. Barnes was a man of his times (pre-WWII, often pre-WWI), and the book is replete with racial and other attitudes of his times-- I warn you if you are easily offended by such things.

Here is a little "pre-history:" of the Roanoke Bar Association:

Roanoke County was founded in 1838. The County seat was (and of course is) Salem, and the County's first courthouse was built there in 1839-40. According to the Court Order books on Wednesday, March 17, 1841: "It is ordered that the courts for the county be held in the new court house after the present term, that said building having been completed and received by the court. And it is further ordered that the Clerk of the Court cause to be kept in two or more conspicuous places about the building a notice that that it will be considered a contempt of the court for an individual to cut, write upon, or otherwise deface the Bar, Bench or any other part of said building and that such conduct will be punished by a fine of not less than $5.00." (Barnes at 29.)

Barnes notes that "Edward Johnston, John T. Anderson, Francis Henderson, Alexander F. Etheridge, James B. Watts and John B.I. Logan, gentlemen, qualified to practice in the Court. Barnes describes the new Courthouse as "constructed of brick with a two storied central building in the center faced with tall white columns."

Barnes tells us that "Court Day was one of the few opportunities offered farmers to socialize with friends from every part of the county. Court was held only four times a year, but the opening day of each term found farmers in carriages, gigs, on horse back or afoot, county seat bound. On such days, taxes were paid, lawyers consulted, horse (sic) traded and new equipment purchased. Old friends met and swapped news and new friendships, or enemies, were cultivated. Salem in those days had taverns and on Court Day all rooms were taken and the tap room crowded. Here candidates for office campaigned and now and then heated political debates could be heard. While good papers from Lynchburg, Washington, Richmond and elsewhere were available, local news was dished out on Court Day which was carried to the utmost boundaries of the county. Court Day was such a delightful institution it is regrettable that it was abolished around 1902." (Barnes at 30).

In the next installment we'll move on to 1888, the year Roanoke was founded.

First Post

This is the first, test post on the new Roanoke Bar Association President's Blog. Welcome. This blog will not go "live" until I take office in June. I will enable comments and check the email. If the board approves I will ask that it be linked to the official Roanoke Bar Association website. I will not be running every post by the Board, so please do not consider any post on this blog to be an official position of the Association.