Richard is the office managing partner of the firm’s Norfolk office. He is a trial lawyer who has taken more than 100 cases to verdict in numerous federal and state courts, including many in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, where he clerked for the Hon. J. Calvitt Clarke Jr. from 1989 – 1990.
Richard focuses on complex civil litigation, including business and contract disputes, bankruptcy adversary proceedings, product liability, toxic torts, and significant fiduciary and estate matters.
Experience
- Representation and defense of an energy company in a $750 million alleged breach of contract case involving the termination of a coal supply agreement and related claimed lost profits, land reclamation and surface water treatment damages. The representation resulted in a defense verdict on all counts for the company, as well as a verdict in favor of the company on a $90 million counter-claim.
- Representation and defense of a metal building company in a $500 million alleged negligence and warranty action involving the collapse of a private jet airport hangar.
- Representation and defense of a utility in a $75 million catastrophic personal injury case arising out of contact with an overhead high voltage power line.
- Representation and defense of a police officer in a high exposure, highly publicized federal civil rights action arising out of a fatal shooting.
- Representation of automobile manufacturers in alleged negligence, warranty and defect product liability actions.
- Representation of a railroad in FELA actions.
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Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason UniversityJD
Member and Editor-in-Chief, George Mason University Law Review
1989 - The College of William & MaryBA1985
Member, Defense Research Institute, Trial Tactics Committee
Member, Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference
Member, Tidewater Federal Bar Association
Member, Virginia Bar Association, Civil Litigation Committee
Member, Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys
- Hon. Joseph C. Clarke, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, 1989-1990
- Virginia
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
- U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia
Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America, Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants, 2007-2025; Commercial Litigation, 2024, 2025, Woodward/White, Inc.
Named “Lawyer of the Year,” Norfolk, Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants, Best Lawyers, 2023