The next president of the Virginia State Bar believes the judiciary deserves more respect and support than it receives from the other two branches of government and intends to use his passion and position to profess just that.
“We have seen the General Assembly fail to fill judicial vacancies in a timely manner, and a prior governor’s administration attempted to raid our cash reserves to balance the state budget,” says Kevin E. Martingayle, who will be sworn in as the new VSB president on Friday evening June 13 during the organization’s 76th annual meeting banquet at the Hilton Virginia Beach Oceanfront Hotel. “We successfully resisted efforts to take money that was supposed to be used only for the Bar’s important operations and activities. But we have to remain vigilant, and working to protect the judicial branch and improve our profession will be high priorities for me.”
Martingayle will be the first VSB president ever from the City of Virginia Beach and only the fourth from the entire Hampton Roads area in the past 30 years.
A 1991 graduate of the University of Virginia Law School who earlier earned a BA in Economics from Hampden-Sydney College, Martingayle is a highly regarded litigator and appellate lawyer with the firm of Bischoff Martingayle. “Kevin has tremendous drive and determination and is a tireless advocate for his clients, particularly for those who are outside of the system and need a determined ally,” says law partner William Bischoff. “I am proud of him for taking on this responsibility with the Virginia State Bar, and I knew he will represent all attorneys well both in Richmond and across the state.”
Created in 1938 by the General Assembly as an administrative agency of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the VSB regulates the legal profession in the Commonwealth, advances the availability and quality of legal services provided to the citizens and assists in improving the legal profession and judicial system. All attorneys must belong to the State Bar whose leadership is drawn from every judicial circuit in Virginia.
Martingayle believes lawyers have the skills and talents to speak up, not just for themselves but for all Virginians who deserve competent legal representation and a judicial system that is properly funded and staffed to meet growing demand. “We are trained to think and write logically and persuasively,” says the husband and father of three who has been listed in Virginia Business Magazine’s Legal Elite every year since 2006 as well as in Best Lawyers in America and Virginia Super Lawyers. “We have to use our talents to ensure the legal system in the Old Dominion is strong and sound.”
A former lifeguard and today a legal advisor to the Virginia Beach Lifeguard Association, Martingayle is a member of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, Virginia Bar Association, American Bar Association, Federal Bar Association and the Virginia Beach Bar Association. For more information on Kevin Martingayle and the law firm of Bischoff Martingayle, visit www.bischoffmartingayle.com.
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