Section News and Information
May 6, 2010
Congratulations to 2010 Law Student Book Award winners
The awards for the law students who demonstrated great promise and potential in the practice of Family Law, are as follows for 2009-2010:Jeremy McGraw of Appalachian Law School
Elizabeth Soucek of George Mason Law School
Betty Bogese-Russo of Regent University Law School
Faith Abar Alejandro of University of Richmond Law School
Dawn Kelly Miller of University of Virginia Law School
Joseph Charles Mercer of Washington & Lee Law School
Rebecca Lynne Roman of William & Mary Law School
Tim Fisk of Liberty Law School
May 7, 2010
Congratulations to the 2010 Service Award winner Christie Marra
Advocate for Women and Children Receives Family Law Service Award
Christine E. “Christie” Marra of Richmond, a legal services attorney since 1991, has been named the 2010 recipient of the Family Law Service Award presented by the Virginia State Bar’s Family Law Section.
The award recognizes people and organizations that have improved family, domestic relations or juvenile law in Virginia. It was presented April 30 at the section’s Advanced Family Law Seminar in Richmond.
In almost 20 years of helping low-income women and children, Marra “has gained a reputation as a tireless advocate for children, especially those in Virginia’s foster care system,” according to the nomination letter from Voices for Virginia’s Children and the Virginia Poverty Law Center.
She recently developed a project, Voices for Change, to give teens in foster care a voice through participating in an art contest. The young artists’ work was published in a book that was distributed to policy makers and community leaders. “This creative project helped transform the youth into advocates and amplified their voices in the policy-making process,“ the letter stated.
In her own legislative advocacy, Marra has worked to make divorce more accessible to low-income persons; to legalize cooperative adoption through which youths in foster care can move in with permanent families while maintaining ties to their birth families; and to improve resources available to foster and adoptive parents.
A native of New York, she earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a law degree from the University of Richmond. She practiced briefly with a legal aid program in Southwest Virginia, then worked as a staff attorney at Central Virginia Legal Aid in Richmond for 13 years. She has been a staff attorney at the Virginia Poverty Law Center since 2004.
May 7, 2010
Congratulations to the 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award winner William C. Wood
Richmond Family Law Practitioner Is Recognized for Lifetime Achievement
William C. Wood, a family law attorney whose passion for and commitment to the legal profession and community is still strong at age 70, has been named the 2010 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Virginia State Bar’s Family Law Section.
The award recognizes persons who have demonstrated excellence and integrity and have made a substantial contribution to the practice of family law in Virginia. The award was presented during the section’s annual Advanced Family Law Seminar on April 30 in Richmond.
“Bill has been in practice for 42 years. … He is generally thought of as the dean of the Henrico County bar,” according to the nomination letter by Michael S. Ewing, a shareholder with Wood in the firm Batzli Wood Stiles.
Wood is a commissioner in chancery, a judge pro tempore who hears primarily family law matters, and a mediator with the McCammon Group. He served on the Family Law Section Board of Governors and was a member of a VSB district committee that hears lawyer disciplinary cases in the Richmond area. He worked on committees that established uniform practices and procedures — including spousal support guidelines — for domestic relations and other civil matters in the Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield circuit courts.
Wood earned a bachelor’s degree from Randolph-Macon College in 1962 and a law degree from the University of Richmond in 1966.
“I believe that every judge and lawyer in Richmond would agree that Bill has raised the level of professionalism among the family law bar,” Ewing wrote. “For the 15 years that I have been with Bill, I have been most impressed with the straightforward honesty and integrity with which he addresses his clients and colleagues. He worked his entire career to create value in his word and his desire to protect and maintain that value continues to guide every decision he makes. … I am repeatedly told by other attorneys that it is ‘refreshing’ to have a case with Bill.”
October 27, 2010
Submitting Articles and News
Family Law News encourages Section members to submit articles, information of a newsworthy nature, etc. for this newsletter. Articles should be typed, double-spaced, and of a length comparable to what you have seen in this newsletter in the past. If you can, send a computer disc, which identifies the computer format and word processing program used. Even better, email it to divorce@patriot.net but tell us you are doing so, so that we don’t miss it. Send as a Word file if possible, otherwise as WordPerfect 5.1. Contents should be sent to the Editor, Richard E. Crouch, 2111 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 950, Arlington, VA 22201.
We print four newsletters per year. We have had to move up the deadlines for all issues so that the Summer issue can be distributed at the Annual Meeting. Until further notice, the deadlines for submission of copy are as follows:
Spring – February 10
Fall – August 10
Summer – April 20
Winter – November 10
Please remember that the contents should be submitted well before the deadline to allow time for our working with the author on any needed revisions. Articles which come in nearest the deadline are subject to more arbitrary editing, or run more chance of being overset to the next issue. The Editor also actively solicits comments from Section members on what they would like to see in the newsletter, and would rather see less of, etc. Do not expect to see these comments in print, however, as we do not have a letters column.
March 25, 2011
2011 Judicial Vacancy Survey Results
Judicial Vacancy Survey Results (.pdf)April 27, 2011
Harrisonburg Family Law Practitioner Is Recognized for Lifetime Achievement
Franklin R. Blatt, a family law attorney who has mentored a generation of Virginia family law attorneys, has been named the 2011 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Virginia State Bar’s Family Law Section.The award recognizes persons who have demonstrated excellence and integrity and have made a substantial contribution to the practice of family law in Virginia. The award will be presented during the section’s annual Advanced Family Law Seminar on April 28 in Richmond. See http://www.vsb.org/site/sections/family-calendar/seminar4282011/ for details.
Blatt has practiced for more than 30 years. In addition to earning a reputation as a skillful litigator, he was one of the first lawyers in his region to train in collaborative law, through which disputes are settled between parties outside the courtroom.
He is a former president of the Harrisonburg/Rockingham County Bar Association, and he founded its family law section. “His contributions to the arena of family law are unparalleled by anyone in our local area,” according to the nomination letter from 10 area lawyers.
“In his zealous and thorough representation of his client, he never overlooked a detail or statute or nuance in the law that would work to benefit his client. Frank Blatt has been one of our best teachers.”
As much as he enjoys his time in the courtroom, Blatt “has seen, for a long time, the benefits of settling a case after both sides have exchanged discovery. … He is respectful of all sides in settlement conferences, … and then can ‘sting like a bee’ in the courtroom, if settlement is not possible.”
While Blatt was on the Family Law Section’s board of governors, he developed an interest group that grew into the VSB’s Special Committee on Technology and the Practice of Law, which he served as chair.
He helps develop family law in Virginia through the Virginia Family Law Coalition, which advises the General Assembly. He is a member of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers; the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, for which he served on the board of governors from 1994 until 2009; and the Virginia Bar Association. He has taught for the Virginia State Bar’s Professionalism Course required of all Virginia lawyers.
After doing most of his undergraduate work at Emory and Henry College, Blatt graduated from East Tennessee State University and then earned a law degree from the University of Memphis. He practices at the Law Offices of Franklin R. Blatt in Harrisonburg.
April 27, 2011
Supreme Court’s Lelia Hopper Will Receive 2011 Family Law Service Award
Lelia Baum Hopper, director of the court improvement project of the Supreme Court of Virginia’s Office of the Executive Secretary, will be recognized with the Family Law Service Award, presented by the Virginia State Bar’s Family Law Section.The award recognizes people and organizations that have improved family, domestic relations, or juvenile law in Virginia. It will be presented April 28 at the section’s Advanced Family Law Seminar in Richmond.
Hopper oversees development and implementation of best practices for managing and resolving cases of child abuse, child neglect, and foster care.
“[W]e have come to know Lelia Hopper as probably the most knowledgeable and influential person in the Commonwealth in the field of child dependency law,” Judge William W. Sharp wrote in a nomination letter on behalf of the Virginia Council of Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judges.
Hopper educates judges and attorneys about dependency law and other juvenile justice matters. Her educational outreach includes other professionals in social services, law enforcement, medicine, mental health, and education. She also works with the General Assembly on child-related legislation, and she oversees the court’s training and certification of guardians ad litem for children and incapacitated adults.
The Best Practice Court Program, through which thirty Virginia courts receive training and develop community teams to deal more effectively with child dependency issues, “has had an enormous impact in improving the process, for care and services, of dependent children,” Sharp wrote.
Before joining the Court staff in 1989, Hopper was a deputy secretary of human resources under Governor Charles S. Robb and an attorney for the Virginia Division of Legislative Services.
Hopper has an undergraduate degree from the University of Richmond and a law degree from the College of William and Mary, where she has served on the adjunct faculty for the juvenile law clinic.
May 27, 2011
Congratulations to 2010-11 Outstanding Graduates
The awards for the law students who demonstrated great promise and potential in the practice of Family Law, are as follows for 2010-2011:Lindsey A. Dennerlein of Appalachian Law School
TBA of George Mason Law School
Jonathan Growick of Regent University Law School
Elizabeth Fairchild Harding of University of Richmond Law School
Emily Groleau Rottier of University of Virginia Law School
Gail Marie Deady & Lethia C. Hammond of Washington & Lee Law School
TBA of William & Mary Law School
Keri Upchurch of Liberty Law School
more information Law Student Book Awards
August 22, 2011
Family Law Section 2011 Annual Report
The 2011 Family Law Section Annual Report is available.
April 16, 2012
Longtime Family Law Practitioner Honored for Lifetime Achievement
Terrence R. Batzli, president of the Batzli Wood and Stiles law firm and a lifelong family law lawyer, has been named the 2012 winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Virginia State Bar’s Family Law Section.
The award recognizes people who have demonstrated excellence and integrity and have made a substantial contribution to the practice of family law in Virginia. The award will be presented during the section’s annual Advanced Family Law Seminar on April 26, 2012, in Richmond. See http://www.vsb.org/site/sections/family-calendar/seminar42012 for details.
Batzli has practiced law for nearly forty years. He not only has a reputation as one of the best family law practitioners in the state, but he is also known as a mentor to many young attorneys.
In his letter nominating Batzli for the award, Richmond attorney Tracy H. Spencer noted that Batzli was a founding member and the first president of the Metropolitan Richmond Family Law Bar Association. “Terry was instrumental in providing this valuable resource to Richmond family law attorneys.” Spencer also wrote that Batzli “believes in teaching young attorneys the procedures and tips on being a good family law attorney. He believes in giving attorneys the opportunities to grow.”
Batzli is a fellow of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the International Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, and the International Academy of Collaborative Professionals. He frequently lectures on family law issues to bar association groups and other professionals. He has served as a Family Law Mediator with the McCammon Group and since 1980 as a Commissioner-in-Chancery and Judge Pro Tempore in the Hanover County Circuit Court.
He received his law degree from the University of Richmond T.C. Williams School of Law in 1975. He also was an honor graduate, Officer Candidate School, Army Transportation Corps, Fort Eustis, Virginia and was a captain on active duty from 1966 to 1970.
May 14, 2012
2011-2012 Law Student Book Awards
Congratulations to the 2012 VSB Family Law Section – Virginia Law School List of Family Law Award Winners
This award is given to the top graduating student from each of the eight Virginia law schools. In conjunction with the Dean of each law school the Family Law professor chooses the graduate who has demonstrated the most promise and potential for the practice of family law to be the recipient of this award.
Thomson Reuters, West Group provides complimentary inscribed copies of their publication Virginia Practice Series – Family Law: Theory, Practice, and Forms by Swisher, Diehl, and Cottrell. The Board of Governors is appreciative of Principal Attorney Editor John S. Bloomquist and Directors Daniel S. Eckert and Richard Brown for making this book award possible. We provide a beautifully framed certificate to accompany the book, and the award is presented to the student at the law school’s graduation ceremonies.
The awards for the law students who demonstrated great promise and potential in the practice of Family Law, are as follows for 2011-2012:
Washington & Lee, School of Law – Recipient: Marc Joseph Zappala
University of Virginia - Recipient: Richard Kent Piacenti
University of Richmond T. C. Williams - Recipient: Kathleen Anna Sicuranza
Regent University School of Law - Recipient: Keila Elizabeth Molina
College of William & Mary - Recipient: Timothy Joseph Huffstutter
Liberty University School of Law - Recipient: Amy Stier
Appalachian School of Law - Recipient: Noorassa Rahimzadeh
George Mason University, School of Law – Recipient: Billie Ann Medoff