Friday, May 4th, 2018
ROANOKE, Va. (May 4, 2018) – The Virginia law firm of Gentry Locke is pleased to announce that it has been awarded “Best Law Firm – Platinum” within The Roanoker magazine’s 2018 “Best of Roanoke” reader poll. The platinum award is the highest honor in each category. Gentry Locke was also named “Best Law Firm – Platinum” in the 2017 “Best of Roanoke.”
The Roanoker’s “Best of Roanoke” poll tabulates more than 68,000 reader votes in more than 150 categories. The 2018 “Best of” issue, which marks the 31st annual poll, published on May 4.
The Roanoker is the longest continuously published city magazine in Virginia. It is issued by LeisureMedia360, an award-winning publisher of state, regional, and local travel guides; city and regional magazines; and quality-of-life publications.
About Gentry Locke
With more than 55 lawyers practicing across a range of disciplines, Gentry Locke brings uncommon thinking and deep experience to the legal and business challenges of companies, institutions, organizations and individuals—a commitment the firm has met since 1923. Operating from offices in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va., Gentry Locke serves clients in Virginia and across the U.S., as well as worldwide as a member firm of the ALFA International Legal Network. Meet the firm’s dynamic attorneys and learn more about its fierce drive to achieve success for its clients by exploring this website.
Friday, April 27th, 2018
ROANOKE, Va. (April 23, 2018) – The Virginia law firm of Gentry Locke is pleased to announce that Powell M. “Nick” Leitch, III has joined as a partner in Gentry Locke’s Medical Malpractice practice group. He previously served as a partner at LeClairRyan.
“We have an enormous amount of respect for Nick, and are so pleased that he will bring such a wealth of experience to our medical malpractice team,” said Gentry Locke Managing Partner Monica Taylor Monday. “We welcome him to our firm and look forward to further servicing our clients with him aboard.”
“Gentry Locke is an esteemed firm with many talented lawyers in the medical malpractice realm and beyond. I look forward to broadening my practice and fostering my client base here,” Leitch said.
Nick has more than 30 years of experience defending medical malpractice and products liability claims, including an extensive list of trial and alternative dispute resolution successes. His clients include a wide variety of health care providers, including physicians, nurses, hospitals, managed care organizations, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and ancillary health care providers. He also counsels hospitals and physicians on patient care issues, medical staff relations, risk management and quality assurance.
Nick has been recognized as a Virginia Super Lawyer for Personal Injury Defense: Medical Malpractice every year since 2013. He has also been recognized by Best Lawyers in the field of Medical Malpractice Law – Defendants consecutively since 2010. In light of his experience and insights, he lectures on various topics, including the Emergency Medical Transfer and Active Labor Act, informed consent, patient confidentiality, and general quality assurance/risk management topics to numerous groups of medical professionals, such as the Alleghany-Bath Medical Society, the Virginia Society of Hospital Risk Managers, Virginia Western Community College, and the Parish Nurse Association.
Nick earned his J.D. and B.A. degrees from Washington & Lee University. He resides in Roanoke with his wife, Cathy, and their two dogs, Honey and Bear.
About Gentry Locke
With more than 55 lawyers practicing across a range of disciplines, Gentry Locke brings uncommon thinking and deep experience to the legal and business challenges of companies, institutions, organizations and individuals—a commitment the firm has met since 1923. Operating from offices in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va., Gentry Locke serves clients in Virginia and across the U.S., as well as worldwide as a member firm of the ALFA International Legal Network. Meet the firm’s dynamic attorneys and learn more about its fierce drive to achieve success for its clients by exploring this website.
Tuesday, April 17th, 2018
ROANOKE, Va. (April 17, 2018) – Gentry Locke is pleased to announce that 27 of the firm’s attorneys were selected for inclusion in the 2018 Virginia Super Lawyers® list, a national legal ranking. Attorneys were nominated by their peers and recognized for their outstanding professional achievement in several legal practice areas, including civil litigation, appellate law, criminal defense, business litigation, business/corporate law, construction litigation, land use and zoning, employment & labor law and litigation, personal injury, professional liability, and tax law.
Of those selected, 17 of the firm’s attorneys from the Roanoke and Lynchburg offices were named as Virginia Super Lawyers, while 10 attorneys were selected as Virginia Super Lawyers Rising Stars—attorneys who are 40 years old or younger, or in practice for 10 years or less.
New to Super Lawyers this year from the firm are Rising Stars Justin M. Lugar and Jonathan D. Puvak.
Managing Partner Monica Taylor Monday was included on the “Top 50 Women” list for Virginia. She was also named to the “Top 100” list along with partner K. Brett Marston.
Super Lawyers, which distinguishes the top 5 percent of attorneys in each state in more than 70 practice areas, recognizes those who have attained significant peer recognition and professional achievement.
2018 Virginia Super Lawyers:
2018 Virginia Super Lawyers Rising Stars:
About Gentry Locke
With more than 55 lawyers practicing across a range of disciplines, Gentry Locke brings uncommon thinking and deep experience to the legal and business challenges of companies, institutions, organizations and individuals—a commitment the firm has met since 1923. Operating from offices in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va., Gentry Locke serves clients in Virginia and across the U.S., as well as worldwide as a member firm of the ALFA International Legal Network. Meet the firm’s dynamic attorneys and learn more about its fierce drive to achieve success for its clients by exploring this website.
Wednesday, April 11th, 2018
Gentry Locke partner Kevin Holt, RBA President, presents Rudy Austin with the 2018 RBA Lifetime Achievement award.
ROANOKE, Va. (April 11, 2018) – The Virginia law firm of Gentry Locke is pleased to announce that Roanoke Retired Partner J. Rudy Austin has been selected as the 2018 recipient of the Roanoke Bar Association (RBA) Frank W. “Bo” Rogers, Jr., Lifetime Achievement Award. Austin will be formally presented with the award at the RBA Law Day Luncheon on May 1.
“This is a tremendous honor that recognizes Rudy’s remarkable career, and sustained contributions to the profession and the bar,” said Gentry Locke Managing Partner Monica Taylor Monday. “Rudy is a model lawyer who has upheld the highest ideals of the profession. We have been fortunate Rudy is the fourth Gentry Locke attorney to receive this recognition. Those who preceded him in earning this distinction include: Senior Counsel S.D. Roberts Moore in 2016, the late Richard C. (Dick) Rakes in 2013, and Senior Counsel William R. (Bill) Rakes in 2010.”
The Frank W. “Bo” Rogers, Jr., Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to an outstanding lawyer who embodies the highest tradition of personal and professional excellence in Southwest Virginia and, in doing so, enhances the image and esteem of attorneys in the region. Rogers was an early member of the RBA and practiced law in Roanoke for more than 50 years.
Austin has been a leader of the Virginia bar, serving as president of the Roanoke Bar Association and the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, and as chair of the Sixth District Ethics Committee and the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board. In 2007, he received the Virginia Association of Defense Attorney’s (VADA) highest honor – the Award for Excellence in Civil Litigation. He is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Bar Foundation, and the Virginia Law Foundation. He was also an Emeritus Master of the Bench in the Ted Dalton American Inn of Court.
Austin recently retired from his position as a senior litigation partner at Gentry Locke. In a career that began in 1967, Austin’s experience included the practice areas of insurance defense, insurance coverage, workers’ compensation, construction, and legal ethics. During his 50 years with Gentry Locke, Austin was consistently recognized by Best Lawyers in America for Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants. He also has been one of a select group of lawyers repeatedly recognized by Chambers USA for Virginia Litigation: General Commercial, was noted as a Litigation Star in General Commercial and Insurance Litigation by Benchmark Litigation, and was consistently noted by Virginia Super Lawyers for Civil Litigation and Defense. Austin is highly esteemed as a virtual encyclopedia of legal knowledge who devoted thousands of hours to mentoring young lawyers at Gentry Locke. The example he sets is still the bedrock of the firm’s culture.
About Gentry Locke
With more than 55 lawyers practicing across a range of disciplines, Gentry Locke brings uncommon thinking and deep experience to the legal and business challenges of companies, institutions, organizations and individuals—a commitment the firm has met since 1923. Operating from offices in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va., Gentry Locke serves clients in Virginia and across the U.S., as well as worldwide as a member firm of the ALFA International Legal Network. Meet the firm’s dynamic attorneys and learn more about its fierce drive to achieve success for its clients by exploring this website.
Tuesday, March 27th, 2018
A local couple is very pleased with the settlement reached in a lawsuit that revealed a towing company was not advertising the sale of towed, impounded, or stored vehicles in a public place as required by law, and the towing company owner had been selling hundreds of such vehicles to himself or back to his own towing company. Dan Casey, columnist for The Roanoke Times, recently wrote an article about the couple’s ordeal and this legal resolution.
Stephen and Melanie Pence were represented by Gentry Locke attorneys Matthew W. Broughton and Andrew M. Bowman in a suit filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia against G & J Towing, located on Preston Avenue NW in Roanoke. The lawsuit demanded $398,000.00 and attorney’s fees and costs, for violations of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act, violations of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment and 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and for conversion, detinue, negligence, and unjust enrichment.
The Pences owned a white 2012 Hyundai Sonata. On September 9, 2016, Mrs. Pence was driving the Sonata when she was involved in a minor fender bender. G & J Towing towed, impounded, and stored Mrs. Pence’s vehicle at its private lot.
On September 15, 2016 G & J Towing sent the Pences a letter stating that it would sell the Sonata at a public auction on October 11, 2016 under the Virginia storage lien statute, Va. Code Ann. § 46.2-644.03, if the Pences did not pay the towing and storage fees for the Sonata and retrieve it before then. The letter stated that G & J Towing would much rather hear from the Pences to discuss an agreeable settlement of the charges rather than sell the vehicle. The Pences followed up with G & J Towing, expressing their intent to settle the fees and retrieve the Sonata. G & J Towing replied that it could not release the Sonata because of the impoundment.
Instead of negotiating the fees and the return of the Sonata with the Pences, G & J Towing sold the Pences’ Sonata at an alleged auction. G & J Towing placed the advertisement for this “auction” two counties away, in Botetourt County, and it did not advertise in a public place, as required by Virginia law. Then, G & J Towing sold the Sonata on October 11, 2016 after giving the Pences only 48 hours to retrieve their vehicle. Walter Hinkley – president of G & J Towing – conducted the “auction,” in which he was the only attendee. Mr. Hinkley sold the vehicle to himself for $1,000 – an amount less than the towing and storage fees that G & J Towing claimed ($1,890) and far below the Sonata’s fair market value of approximately $10,000.
Discovery in the case revealed that the fact pattern befallen the Pences was one of G & J Towing’s standard practices. G & J Towing would routinely advertise the sale of towed, impounded, or stored vehicles in Botetourt County – and not in a public place as required by Virginia law. Over the past six years, Mr. Hinkley has sold hundreds of these vehicles either to himself or back to his company, G & J Towing. These vehicles were either repaired and resold, or stripped for parts and sold for scrap metal.
The case settled in December 2017 for a confidential amount.
Sunday, March 18th, 2018
Virginia Lawyers Weekly recently corrected their 2017 list of Million-dollar Settlements to include a legal malpractice matter handled by Gentry Locke attorneys Matthew W. Broughton, Gregory D. Habeeb, and Andrew D. Finnicum. The case, which settled for $5M, warrants a #9 spot on a list of more than two dozen cases that settled for more than $1M in 2017.
Read the Virginia Lawyers Weekly list (PDF opens in a new window)
Friday, March 2nd, 2018
To support our ongoing commitment to pro bono work, Gentry Locke has created two awards to recognize outstanding pro bono efforts. These awards were presented for the first time on February 11, 2018.
The first award is the Gentry Locke Pro Bono Promise Award. It will be awarded annually to recognize pro bono work that exceeds the 2% yearly aspirational goal set by the Supreme Court of Virginia, in either a quantitative (sheer hours) or qualitative way (great project or impact). The award can be given to an individual Gentry Locke attorney or group of attorneys.
The 2017 recipient of the Gentry Locke Pro Bono Promise Award is Thomas J. Bondurant, Jr. Tom has demonstrated an enormous commitment to pro bono, as reflected in the substantial pro bono projects he has undertaken over the last several years. Tom also served as Co-Chair of our Pro Bono Task Force, and logged more than 250 hours of time on pro bono projects in 2017. Tom will be the first to say that his entire practice group has backed, and worked alongside him on these projects. This is absolutely true, and this award recognizes Tom’s leadership on these efforts and his personal commitment to providing free legal services to those who cannot afford them.
The second award is the J. Rudy Austin Pro Bono Service Award, which recognizes exceptional service and commitment to the pro bono cause. The award is named in honor of Rudy Austin, who retired from Gentry Locke after 50 years of practicing law. During his distinguished legal career, Rudy set a powerful example of service and commitment to the firm, and to the principles of professionalism. One of the core principles of professionalism is our duty to provide free legal services to those who cannot afford them. This award is not an annual award; it will be awarded when appropriate to recognize an individual or group of individuals for exceptional service and commitment to pro bono.
The inaugural recipient of the J. Rudy Austin Pro Bono Service Award is Kathleen L. Wright. Kathy has served as the firm’s liaison to Blue Ridge Legal Services (“BRLS”) for many years. In this capacity, she has coordinated, managed, and overseen the firm’s pro bono efforts with BRLS, ensuring that our firm provides needed legal services right here in our community. She has also served on the BRLS board, stayed abreast of pro bono developments, served as a pro bono hotline volunteer, and has encouraged others in the firm to find and perform more pro bono work. Kathy also served as Co-Chair of our Pro Bono Task Force, and has worked to implement the recommendations from the Task Force’s work. Kathy’s quiet commitment to pro bono has involved countless hours of work, and has helped any equally countless number of people.
We congratulate Tom and Kathy on their outstanding pro bono efforts!
Wednesday, February 28th, 2018
Gentry Locke Partner Bill Gust will be a featured speaker at two upcoming conferences geared toward employee-owned businesses.
“Mitigating Cyber Security Risk from a Fiduciary Perspective” will be presented at the ESOP Association Mid-Atlantic/Carolinas Chapter’s Spring Conference in Charlottesville, VA on Friday, March 9, 2018, and also at the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday, April 18, 2018.
Learn more about the events and register to attend by clicking on these links: Charlottesville event Atlanta event
Tuesday, February 20th, 2018
The Virginia law firm of Gentry Locke is pleased to announce that Roanoke Partner Catherine J. Huff was named to the Virginia State Bar’s Young Lawyers Conference (YLC) Board of Governors. Huff is serving a two-year term as the 8th District Representative.
The YLC was founded in 1973 as a subset of the Virginia State Bar. Its members are considered to be the voice of Virginia’s young lawyers in front of the Virginia State Bar and the American Bar Association. YLC activities include semi-annual admission and orientation ceremonies, the Virginia Domestic Violence Safety Project, a board match program, minority recruitment conferences, emergency legal services, a membership support seminar, and various community outreach projects. Cate’s district includes Judicial Circuits 23 and 25, which is comprised of the following counties: Roanoke, Highland, Augusta, Roanoke, Rockbridge, Bath, Alleghany, Botetourt and Craig.
Cate practices in Gentry Locke’s Employment, Insurance, and Workers’ Compensation practice groups and has litigated in federal and state courts throughout Virginia. She defends employers against discrimination and workplace claims, and advises businesses in the restaurant and hospitality industry on employment issues. She has been named a Virginia Super Lawyers “Rising Star” three years in a row and was also honored as a “Legal Elite” by Virginia Business magazine. She graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Tech and earned her J.D. from Liberty University.
In addition to her YLC service, Cate volunteers for the Blue Ridge Legal Services Pro Bono Hotline and Wills for Heroes. She sits on the Roanoke Children’s Theater Board of Directors and serves as a member of the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, The Virginia Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division, and the Roanoke Bar Association.
About Gentry Locke
With more than 55 lawyers practicing across a range of disciplines, Gentry Locke brings uncommon thinking and deep experience to the legal and business challenges of companies, institutions, organizations and individuals—a commitment the firm has met since 1923. Operating from offices in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va., Gentry Locke serves clients in Virginia and across the U.S., as well as worldwide as a member firm of the ALFA International Legal Network. Meet the firm’s dynamic attorneys and learn more about its fierce drive to achieve success for its clients by exploring this website.
Friday, February 2nd, 2018
Photo courtesy of The Virginia Bar Association
ROANOKE, Va. (February 2, 2018) – The Virginia law firm of Gentry Locke is pleased to announce that Roanoke Partner Jonathan D. Puvak was presented with the Emerson G. Spies Award during The Virginia Bar Association’s 128th Annual Meeting in Williamsburg, Virginia on January 19, 2018. The award is given annually to a member of The Virginia Bar Association’s Young Lawyers Division (YLD) for loyalty, dedication, and enthusiasm.
Puvak was named as this year’s Emerson G. Spies Award recipient specifically in recognition of his efforts chairing the YLD’s CLE Committee. Puvak planned and coordinated continuing legal education programming for all YLD events during four separate meetings over the course of 2017. This included programming on contracts, aquaculture, alcohol, ethics, and law practice management.
Puvak, who was promoted to the position of Partner at the beginning of 2018, practices on the firm’s Business & Corporate team. He assists businesses, business owners, and governmental entities with corporate governance, commercial transactions, employee benefits, and tax and real estate matters. Before attending law school, Puvak gained business and real estate development experience by working with one of the nation’s largest homebuilders. In addition to his leadership with the YLD, he is a member and holds a leadership role with the Virginia State Bar’s Young Lawyers Conference. He also serves the local bar community through the Roanoke Bar Association and as a Barrister Book Buddy volunteer to local elementary schools, and contributes to the business community as an ambassador for the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce. Within the firm, he coordinates Gentry Locke’s annual fundraising campaign for the United Way of Roanoke Valley.
About Gentry Locke
With more than 55 lawyers practicing across a range of disciplines, Gentry Locke brings uncommon thinking and deep experience to the legal and business challenges of companies, institutions, organizations and individuals—a commitment the firm has met since 1923. Operating from offices in Roanoke and Lynchburg, Va., Gentry Locke serves clients in Virginia and across the U.S., as well as worldwide as a member firm of the ALFA International Legal Network. Meet the firm’s dynamic attorneys and learn more about its fierce drive to achieve success for its clients by exploring this website.
