YLC Selects Barry G. Logsdon as
Young Lawyer of the Year and
Recognizes Efforts of
Other Outstanding Young Lawyers
Each year since 1993, the Young Lawyers Conference
of the Virginia State Bar recognizes a young lawyer for outstanding service
to the bar and the community with its R. Edwin Burnette, Jr. Young Lawyer
of the Year Award. As in the past, selecting from among this year's nominees
proved to be a difficult task. After much deliberation, Barry G. Logsdon
of the firm Logsdon & Mitchell in Newport News, was selected as the
1997-98 recipient because of his significant contributions to child advocacy
and his work as a YLC circuit representative and liaison to the YLC Children
and the Law Committee.
Barry's impressive efforts in child advocacy began as YLC circuit representative
for the 1st District of Virginia. In this capacity, he was responsible for
the installation of a child witness waiting room in the Newport News Juvenile
and Domestic Relations District Court. This room, a safe haven for children
involved in the court system, received accolades from Child Protective Services,
juvenile judges and clerks, and was the subject of a story in the Daily
Press. As circuit representative, he also initiated and co-sponsored with
the Newport News court-appointed special advocates, a 3 hour training session
for guardians and volunteer advocates on how to deal with many of the difficulties
inherent in advocation for children who were victims of sexual abuse. The
course was approved by the Virginia MCLE Board for 3 hours of CLE credit
and by the Supreme Court for 3 hours of GAL training.
Simultaneous with Barry's services as a circuit representative for Newport
News, he served as chair of the VSB-YLC Children and the Law Committee,
breathing new life into the committee, and working with committee members
to launch fourteen new child victim waiting rooms across the Commonwealth
and sponsor several guardian ad litem training sessions, two of which were
given special recognition by the ABA. He also developed the Child Victim
Box, which is a movable box of quiet toys to provide entertainment and a
physical barrier for children in courthouses where space does not allow
addition of a room. As a member of the YLC Board of Governors, and as liaison
to the Children and the Law Committee, Barry continues to expand the GAL
training and Child Witness Waiting Room Program.
- As if these accomplishments were not enough, we present the following
list of Barry's many other activities in the realm of child advocacy:
- Acted as guardian ad litem to over 700 children who have been victims
of abuse, neglect or emotional suffering as a result of an acrimonious
divorce.
- Arranged a partnership with local plastic surgeons to remove, free
of charge, any permanent gang insignia from children who are former gang
members.
- Initiated work internships for older, promising, but disadvantaged
former juvenile court wards by coordinating job experience for them in
local businesses.
- Helped found One More Chance, a multi-jurisdiction, inner city outreach
program for children sentenced to the Department of Juvenile Justice. As
part of the project, the children are given an inner-city church or business
mentor, tutoring, and constructive projects and goals.
- Developed a referral list of supporting agencies, programs, food and
emergency cash resources, domestic violence shelters, and counseling and
mental health resources.
- If space permitted, the list could go on. Barry's personal and professional
endeavors to meet the needs of children has truly made a difference in
Virginia.
We are most proud to count Barry Logsdon as an active member of the YLC
and as a lawyer that all of us, both young and experienced, can point to
with great pride.
Also recognized at the YLC luncheon for their outstanding contributions:
Amy Ashworth, 31st Circuit Representative
Bart Chucker, Annual Meeting/Dance
Jim Creekmore, Tele-Court Project
Michelle Jones , Docket Call
Kathleen McCormick, Annual Meeting & National Trial Comp
Bill Musto, First Day in Practice
Nelson Teague , Tele-Court Project
Russ Updike, 25th Circuit Representative
John Weber, 23rd Circuit Representative