Old Dominion Bar Association
"Virginia's Advocates for Equal Justice"
"Virginia's Advocates for Equal Justice"
The Early Years: 1940-1950
Frederic Charles Carter, Esq. of Richmond, Virginia, was working diligently on an important brief in the law library of
the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in December 1940, when an assistant librarian motioned for him to move to an
alcove in the southeast corner of the library because of a new Supreme Court policy. Carter, a Negro lawyer, refused
to move. Similarly, he refused an order from the head librarian to come to his office. The head librarian summoned a
police officer who told Carter, “Get going, the librarian wants to speak to you in his office.” According to his letter to
Chief Justice Preston W. Campbell, Carter responded to the police officer saying, “I am a member of the Bar and don’t
have to talk to anyone unless I choose to do so. If I am under arrest, I would like to know that.” The police officer left
after talking to the librarian, and Carter finished what he was doing about 45 minutes later.
By letter dated December 23, 1940, Carter inquired of the Chief Justice whether the court had indeed formulated a
policy relegating Negro lawyers to a special section of the law library and to complain about his treatment. Because
of illness, Chief Justice Campbell referred Carter’s letter to Acting Chief Justice Holt for proper consideration at the
next term of Court.
After several months passed without a response from the Supreme Court, Carter contacted some of his friends about
the need to organize a bar association. In April 1941, he wrote to Valentine & Cooley, saying, “What you said with
reference to a meeting of as many of us as could attend at some designated time and place is the proper approach
to the end that we be in position to deal effectively in matters of this kind in particular and in matters generally
pertaining to us as members of the bar and of the legal profession.”
Immediately thereafter, R. H. Cooley, Jr. of Petersburg, Virginia contacted lawyers in Portsmouth, Norfolk, Newport
News, and at the Howard University School of Law to discern their interest in organizing a bar association of all the
Negro attorneys in the state and to obtain the names of other lawyers interested in such an organization. Throughout
1941, the following individuals met to organize the Old Dominion Bar Association: J. Thomas Hewin, Sr., Roland D.
Ealey, James T. Carter, Fredric Charles Carter, J. Byron Hopkins and Oliver W. Hill of Richmond; W. S. Duiguid of
Lynchburg; Martin A. Martin of Danville; Robert H. Cooley of Petersburg; Thomas W. Young and J. Eugene Diggs of
Norfolk; James Raby of Alexandria; L. Marian Poe of Newport News.
In March 1942 Oliver W. Hill sent a formal notice to the Negro lawyers in Virginia announcing an organizational meeting
in Richmond on April 12, 1942. Pre-registration cost was $1.00, which covered organizational expenses and the cost
of dinner at Miller’s Hotel on Second and Leigh Streets. Twenty-five attorneys attended the meeting, named the
organization the Old Dominion Bar Association and elected officers: Oliver W. Hill, President; L. Marian Poe, Secretary;
Martin A. Martin, Vice-President; James M. Morris (of Staunton), Treasurer.
A meeting to adopt a constitution was held on May 31, 1942. Annual dues were $4.50, which prompted Oliver Hill to
include on organization notices, “If you are very, very busy – we need you. If you don’t think you can afford it, you need
us.”
After the May 31st meeting, the organization next met on November 22, 1942, at Miller’s Hotel in Richmond. The
Honorable Charles H. Houston, former President of the National Bar Association was the keynote speaker. Turkey
with all the trimmings was served, and the dinner plus registration cost of $0.85 per person.
Like the rest of the country, the Old Dominion Bar Association was affected by the war in 1943, and several ODBA
members, including its President, Oliver Hill, joined the military. R. H. Cooley, Jr. ably assumed the role of Acting
President and, along with L. Marian Poe, organized the next annual meeting, which was held in July 1944 in Newport
News. At the time, Poe was not only secretary of the Old Dominion Bar Association, but also was Assistant Secretary
of the National Bar Association.
In his call for an Annual Meeting, Cooley wrote to members, “It is absolutely imperative that you close your office all
day Saturday (July 22) to be present at the Annual Meeting of ODBA.” He also stated in the letter, “This meeting is the
most important since the organization of the Bar. Many events have taken place in Virginia, and we, as lawyers, must
assume responsibility to our people and ourselves. Moreover, this convention is designed to supply the “association”
which is essentially the source of aid each attorney needs.”
The first session of the two-day meeting began Saturday at 4:00 p.m. with a welcome from W. R. Walker, the Negro
lawyer practicing the longest in the Newport News bar. After other business, Acting President Cooley gave the
President’s Report and focused on issues of concern at the time: War, federalism, the Virginia State Bar (called the
Integrated Bar) and the National Bar Association.
On the War, he urged that the ODBA “…should keep abreast with service legislation in order to aid men and women
in uniforms and their families in matters pertaining to insurance, dependency allotments and any other phases
necessary to solve their perplexing problems. There is the matter of advising returning veterans in securing
mustering out pay, federal assistance after peace, etc. We could volunteer aid in the War Department and also the
office of the Judge Advocate General.”
On Federal issues he said, “The time is come when our “little backyard” in law is now “national” in scope. Knowledge
of labor legislation, activities of unions is of grave concern to us as practitioners. We MUST know the F.F.L.S.A.—
Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, that adjusts wages when labor is part of products moving in interstate commerce.
The bulk of our clients might be among those marginal salaried laborers who would probably be affected. The Fair
Employment Practice Committee, through alert lawyers, could become quite active to curtail discrimination in public
war effort jobs. Also, no evil would befall our Bar Association if more of our members were qualified in the Federal
District Courts. The time might come when important questions might be decided by members of the Federal Courts.”
Interestingly, on the payment of mandatory dues of $3.50 annually to the Virginia State Bar, he noted, “We should be
ACTIVE members. Our Association should always be represented at the meetings of the Virginia State Bar through
all members who are within reasonable proximity of such meetings.”
Noting with pride that ODBA member James H. Raby was Regional Director of Region 6 of the National Bar Association,
he encouraged paying the $5.00 membership fee to join that organization.
The group also discussed Palmer v. Newport News School Board, a teacher pay equalization case, the Democratic
Party Convention in Roanoke, Virginia, and the Davis bus case in Norfolk. The Honorable Spotswood W. Robinson III
delivered the keynote address, “Some Possibilities in the Use of Writ of Error Coram Nobis in Criminal Practice in
Virginia”.
The ODBA compiled a list of Negro lawyers in Virginia. As of July 1944 there were fifty-four active members, four in
the army and three in Washington, D.C, totaling sixty-one lawyers. These lawyers were spread across the state with
some in Norfolk, Richmond, Newport News, Alexandria, Portsmouth, in Danville, Lynchburg, Hampton, and one each in
Cape Charles, Gloucester, Manassas, Martinsville, Petersburg, Staunton and Suffolk.
James H. Raby organized the next Annual Meeting, which was held in Alexandria September 1-2, 1945. The theme of
the program was “Plan for Action by Lawyers in Virginia”, and panel leaders were W. R. Walker and Wendell Walker,
both of Newport News. Issues discussed included GI legislation, unemployment, labor and post-war practice in
Virginia. The Executive Board of the ODBA was elected, and the following served: R. H. Cooley, Jr., President;
James H. Raby; First Vice President; William J. Kemp, Second Vice President, L. Marian Poe, Secretary; James M.
Morris, Treasurer; T. C. Walker; Inez Fields Scott; and C.A. McKenzie.
The next Annual Meeting, organized by Bertha L. Douglas, was held in Norfolk on September 21, 1946. Thirty-six
persons attended, and the keynote speaker was The Honorable Armond W. Scott, Judge, District of Columbia Municipal
Court. President Cooley welcomed back ODBA the members who had returned from the War: Oliver W. Hill, Roland
Ealey, “Sam” Wilbur Tucker, Raymond J. Valentine and Victor Ashe.
Richmond was the site of the September 1947 Annual Meeting. At this meeting the ODBA membership decided to use
the organization’s strength and prestige to influence the appointment of judges in whom members of the Association
had confidence.
********
Spawned from the need to confront a policy that offended personal and professional dignity, from the need for African-
American lawyers to associate for personal and professional growth, and from a need to encourage African-American
lawyers to participate in the Virginia State Bar, the ODBA grew into an organization that filled not only those particular
needs but one that also has provided continuity of leadership and support with respect to the various concerns of
particular interest to African Americans and other people of color. For example, over the past thirty years, ODBA
members diligently, and successfully, worked to ensure the appointment of African-American lawyers to judgeships
around the state.
The names and faces have changed over the years, but the ODBA is has remained strong in its resolve to be Virginia’s
advocate for equal justice.
2008 ARCHIVES
2007 ARCHIVES
OCTOBER 2007
Virginia Supreme Court Appointment
Governor Timothy M. Kaine appointed Chesapeake Circuit Court Judge S. Bernard Goodwyn to the Virginia Supreme
Court seat vacated when former Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy retired. Sworn in on October 19, 2007, Justice Goodwyn is
the third African-American to serve on the Virginia Supreme Court, preceded by Chief Justice Leroy Hassell and former
Justice John Charles Thomas. The University of Virginia Law School graduate became the first African-American
judge in Chesapeake when he began serving on the Chesapeake General District Court bench. He was elevated to the
Circuit Court in 1997. Forty-six year old Goodwyn, a native of Southampton County, Virginia, is married to Sharon Smith
Goodwyn, Esq., both of whom are members of the Old Dominion Bar Association.
ODBA President-Elect Inducted as Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation
ODBA President-Elect Beverly Burton was inducted as a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation. This honor is conferred
on lawyers who have distinguished themselves by professional excellence, service to the Bar and to their
communities. It is limited to one percent of the active and associate lawyers in Virginia. A reception, dinner, and
induction ceremony was held January 17, 2008 at the Williamsburg Lodge and Convention Center in conjunction with
the Annual Meeting of the Virginia Bar Association. Marilynn Goss, a former ODBA President, is a Virginia Law
Foundation Fellow and serves on the Foundation’s Fellows Council.
SEPTEMBER 2007
ODBA Member Named New American Judges Association President
Chesapeake Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Eileen A. Olds, was sworn in on September 29, 2007, as
President of the American Judges Association at the organization’s conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. A 1982
graduate of the Marshall Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary, Judge Olds, the first African-
American female to serve on the bench in Chesapeake, received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the National Bar
Association in August of this year. She is a member of the Old Dominion Bar Association.
Former ODBA President Retires from Bench
Judge Gammiel G. Poindexter, ODBA President during 1980-1982, retired from the Sixth Judicial District General
District Court bench on October 1, 2007. Judge Poindexter began serving on the bench September 1995, and presided
over civil and criminal matters in Greensville, Emporia and Sussex. She handled one of the highest caseloads per
judge in the Commonwealth from 1995 until 2001, when another judgeship was added to the Sixth Judicial District.
Judge Poindexter was Chief Judge of the General District Court from October 1999 to July 2002. A 1969 graduate of
Louisiana State University Law School, she was Commonwealth’s Attorney of Surry County from January 1, 1976 to
August 31, 1995. She is married to Gerald G. Poindexter, Esq., Commonwealth’s Attorney for Surry County. Both are
long-time members of the ODBA.
AUGUST 2007
ODBA Founder Dies
August 5, 2007 - Oliver W. Hill, Sr. passed away at his home on August 5, 2007, at the age of one hundred. Mr. Hill,
one of the founders of the Old Dominion Bar Association, was a retired civil rights attorney who, along with
Hon. Spottswood Robinson, and Hon. Thurgood Marshall, paved the way for enormous social change in America
through his work on behalf of Prince Edward County, Virginia school children in the landmark Brown v. Board of
Education case. Feted in honor of his 100th birthday in May 2007, in 1999 Mr. Hill was awarded the highest American
civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2005 received the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest honor.
Mr. Hill lay in state for viewing by the public at the Executive Mansion in Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday, August 11,
2007, and a memorial service was held on Sunday, August 12, 2007 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in
Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Hill was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Richmond.
ODBA Judicial Selection Committee Evaluates Virginia Supreme Court Candidates
August 17, 2007 - The ODBA Judicial Selection Committee evaluated fourteen candidates for the seat of retiring
Virginia Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy. The ODBA Executive Committee considered the Committee's
report at its August 18th meeting and reported its findings and recommendations to Governor Timothy Kaine. The
Judicial Selection Committee evaluated the candidates for retiring Virginia Court of Appeals Judge James W. Benton
on August 30, 2007.
JULY 2007
ODBA Executive Committee Member Pamela Boston Elected Vice-President of NBA
ODBA Executive Committee member and former Treasurer Pamela F. Boston, Esq.,was elected a Vice-President of
the National Bar Association at its annual meeting in July. Ms. Boston has served the NBA in several capacities,
including Region IV Coordinator of the NBA MLK Advocacy Competition, Publisher/Editor of the Region IV Newsletter,
NBA Board Member-At-Large, and most recently as Region IV Director. A recipient of two NBA Presidential Awards,
Ms. Boston will oversee the activities pertaining to membership for the NBA in her capacity as Vice-President.
Ms. Boston was Associate General Counsel and Special Assistant Attorney General for Virginia Commonwealth
University from November 1995 to January 2006. She was appointed General Counsel and Assistant Attorney General
for Norfolk State University February 2006.
ODBA Treasurer Helivi Holland Sworn in Suffolk's first Deputy City Attorney
July 27, 2007 - ODBA Treasurer, Helivi Holland, Esq., was sworn in as the City of Suffolk's first Deputy City Attorney.
Ms. Holland joined the Suffolk City Attorney's Office in 2002 as an Assistant City Attorney after being a
prosecutor in the cities of Portsmouth and Suffolk for a total of ten years. Formerly an adjunct community college
professor, she also was a certified trainer for the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work and
was a guardian ad litem for more than 10 years. Ms. Holland began her legal career in Suffolk with Benn and Benn,
the law firm of the late Herman T. Benn, Esq. and his widow, Marian Benn.
Virginia Court of Appeals Judge James W. Benton Announces Retirement
The Honorable James W. Benton, Jr., a judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals, announced he will retire Oct. 1, 2007.
A graduate of Temple University and the University of Virginia School of Law, Judge Benton was appointed to the court
of appeals when it was created in 1985. A long-time member of the Old Dominion Bar Association, Judge Benton was
the first, and only, African American appointed to the Virginia Court of Appeals.
Suffolk Attorney, Herman T. Benn, Dies
Herman T. Benn, Esq., a Suffolk, Virginia attorney and long-time member of the Old Dominion Bar Association, passed
away on July 20, 2007. Mr. Benn's long career included a win before the United States Supreme Court in Johnson v.
Commonwealth of Virginia, in which the court held that "[s]tate-compelled segregation in a court of justice is a
manifest violation of the State's duty to deny no one the equal protection of its laws." Mr. Benn represented an African
American who was charged with contempt of court when he sat in the section of court reserved for whites only. His
widow, Marian Benn, Esq., is also a member of the Old Dominion Bar Association.
Visit this link to a Virginian-Pilot newspaper story for details of Mr. Benn's career: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-
Pilot/issues/1997/vp970215/02150225.htm
APRIL 2007
ODBA President-Elect Receives Distinguished 2007 LGA Cherin Award
April 20, 2007 - Hampton - The Local Government Attorneys of Virginia, Inc. presented ODBA President-Elect
Beverly A. Burton with the 2007 Cherin Award for Outstanding Deputy or Assistant City, County, or Town Attorney. The
award recognizes an attorney who has demonstrated distinguished public service that has enhanced the image of local
government attorneys in the Commonwealth and reflects a personal commitment to the highest ethical and
professional principles. Attorney Burton is the first African-American to win this award.
Frederic Charles Carter, Esq. of Richmond, Virginia, was working diligently on an important brief in the law library of
the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals in December 1940, when an assistant librarian motioned for him to move to an
alcove in the southeast corner of the library because of a new Supreme Court policy. Carter, a Negro lawyer, refused
to move. Similarly, he refused an order from the head librarian to come to his office. The head librarian summoned a
police officer who told Carter, “Get going, the librarian wants to speak to you in his office.” According to his letter to
Chief Justice Preston W. Campbell, Carter responded to the police officer saying, “I am a member of the Bar and don’t
have to talk to anyone unless I choose to do so. If I am under arrest, I would like to know that.” The police officer left
after talking to the librarian, and Carter finished what he was doing about 45 minutes later.
By letter dated December 23, 1940, Carter inquired of the Chief Justice whether the court had indeed formulated a
policy relegating Negro lawyers to a special section of the law library and to complain about his treatment. Because
of illness, Chief Justice Campbell referred Carter’s letter to Acting Chief Justice Holt for proper consideration at the
next term of Court.
After several months passed without a response from the Supreme Court, Carter contacted some of his friends about
the need to organize a bar association. In April 1941, he wrote to Valentine & Cooley, saying, “What you said with
reference to a meeting of as many of us as could attend at some designated time and place is the proper approach
to the end that we be in position to deal effectively in matters of this kind in particular and in matters generally
pertaining to us as members of the bar and of the legal profession.”
Immediately thereafter, R. H. Cooley, Jr. of Petersburg, Virginia contacted lawyers in Portsmouth, Norfolk, Newport
News, and at the Howard University School of Law to discern their interest in organizing a bar association of all the
Negro attorneys in the state and to obtain the names of other lawyers interested in such an organization. Throughout
1941, the following individuals met to organize the Old Dominion Bar Association: J. Thomas Hewin, Sr., Roland D.
Ealey, James T. Carter, Fredric Charles Carter, J. Byron Hopkins and Oliver W. Hill of Richmond; W. S. Duiguid of
Lynchburg; Martin A. Martin of Danville; Robert H. Cooley of Petersburg; Thomas W. Young and J. Eugene Diggs of
Norfolk; James Raby of Alexandria; L. Marian Poe of Newport News.
In March 1942 Oliver W. Hill sent a formal notice to the Negro lawyers in Virginia announcing an organizational meeting
in Richmond on April 12, 1942. Pre-registration cost was $1.00, which covered organizational expenses and the cost
of dinner at Miller’s Hotel on Second and Leigh Streets. Twenty-five attorneys attended the meeting, named the
organization the Old Dominion Bar Association and elected officers: Oliver W. Hill, President; L. Marian Poe, Secretary;
Martin A. Martin, Vice-President; James M. Morris (of Staunton), Treasurer.
A meeting to adopt a constitution was held on May 31, 1942. Annual dues were $4.50, which prompted Oliver Hill to
include on organization notices, “If you are very, very busy – we need you. If you don’t think you can afford it, you need
us.”
After the May 31st meeting, the organization next met on November 22, 1942, at Miller’s Hotel in Richmond. The
Honorable Charles H. Houston, former President of the National Bar Association was the keynote speaker. Turkey
with all the trimmings was served, and the dinner plus registration cost of $0.85 per person.
Like the rest of the country, the Old Dominion Bar Association was affected by the war in 1943, and several ODBA
members, including its President, Oliver Hill, joined the military. R. H. Cooley, Jr. ably assumed the role of Acting
President and, along with L. Marian Poe, organized the next annual meeting, which was held in July 1944 in Newport
News. At the time, Poe was not only secretary of the Old Dominion Bar Association, but also was Assistant Secretary
of the National Bar Association.
In his call for an Annual Meeting, Cooley wrote to members, “It is absolutely imperative that you close your office all
day Saturday (July 22) to be present at the Annual Meeting of ODBA.” He also stated in the letter, “This meeting is the
most important since the organization of the Bar. Many events have taken place in Virginia, and we, as lawyers, must
assume responsibility to our people and ourselves. Moreover, this convention is designed to supply the “association”
which is essentially the source of aid each attorney needs.”
The first session of the two-day meeting began Saturday at 4:00 p.m. with a welcome from W. R. Walker, the Negro
lawyer practicing the longest in the Newport News bar. After other business, Acting President Cooley gave the
President’s Report and focused on issues of concern at the time: War, federalism, the Virginia State Bar (called the
Integrated Bar) and the National Bar Association.
On the War, he urged that the ODBA “…should keep abreast with service legislation in order to aid men and women
in uniforms and their families in matters pertaining to insurance, dependency allotments and any other phases
necessary to solve their perplexing problems. There is the matter of advising returning veterans in securing
mustering out pay, federal assistance after peace, etc. We could volunteer aid in the War Department and also the
office of the Judge Advocate General.”
On Federal issues he said, “The time is come when our “little backyard” in law is now “national” in scope. Knowledge
of labor legislation, activities of unions is of grave concern to us as practitioners. We MUST know the F.F.L.S.A.—
Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, that adjusts wages when labor is part of products moving in interstate commerce.
The bulk of our clients might be among those marginal salaried laborers who would probably be affected. The Fair
Employment Practice Committee, through alert lawyers, could become quite active to curtail discrimination in public
war effort jobs. Also, no evil would befall our Bar Association if more of our members were qualified in the Federal
District Courts. The time might come when important questions might be decided by members of the Federal Courts.”
Interestingly, on the payment of mandatory dues of $3.50 annually to the Virginia State Bar, he noted, “We should be
ACTIVE members. Our Association should always be represented at the meetings of the Virginia State Bar through
all members who are within reasonable proximity of such meetings.”
Noting with pride that ODBA member James H. Raby was Regional Director of Region 6 of the National Bar Association,
he encouraged paying the $5.00 membership fee to join that organization.
The group also discussed Palmer v. Newport News School Board, a teacher pay equalization case, the Democratic
Party Convention in Roanoke, Virginia, and the Davis bus case in Norfolk. The Honorable Spotswood W. Robinson III
delivered the keynote address, “Some Possibilities in the Use of Writ of Error Coram Nobis in Criminal Practice in
Virginia”.
The ODBA compiled a list of Negro lawyers in Virginia. As of July 1944 there were fifty-four active members, four in
the army and three in Washington, D.C, totaling sixty-one lawyers. These lawyers were spread across the state with
some in Norfolk, Richmond, Newport News, Alexandria, Portsmouth, in Danville, Lynchburg, Hampton, and one each in
Cape Charles, Gloucester, Manassas, Martinsville, Petersburg, Staunton and Suffolk.
James H. Raby organized the next Annual Meeting, which was held in Alexandria September 1-2, 1945. The theme of
the program was “Plan for Action by Lawyers in Virginia”, and panel leaders were W. R. Walker and Wendell Walker,
both of Newport News. Issues discussed included GI legislation, unemployment, labor and post-war practice in
Virginia. The Executive Board of the ODBA was elected, and the following served: R. H. Cooley, Jr., President;
James H. Raby; First Vice President; William J. Kemp, Second Vice President, L. Marian Poe, Secretary; James M.
Morris, Treasurer; T. C. Walker; Inez Fields Scott; and C.A. McKenzie.
The next Annual Meeting, organized by Bertha L. Douglas, was held in Norfolk on September 21, 1946. Thirty-six
persons attended, and the keynote speaker was The Honorable Armond W. Scott, Judge, District of Columbia Municipal
Court. President Cooley welcomed back ODBA the members who had returned from the War: Oliver W. Hill, Roland
Ealey, “Sam” Wilbur Tucker, Raymond J. Valentine and Victor Ashe.
Richmond was the site of the September 1947 Annual Meeting. At this meeting the ODBA membership decided to use
the organization’s strength and prestige to influence the appointment of judges in whom members of the Association
had confidence.
********
Spawned from the need to confront a policy that offended personal and professional dignity, from the need for African-
American lawyers to associate for personal and professional growth, and from a need to encourage African-American
lawyers to participate in the Virginia State Bar, the ODBA grew into an organization that filled not only those particular
needs but one that also has provided continuity of leadership and support with respect to the various concerns of
particular interest to African Americans and other people of color. For example, over the past thirty years, ODBA
members diligently, and successfully, worked to ensure the appointment of African-American lawyers to judgeships
around the state.
The names and faces have changed over the years, but the ODBA is has remained strong in its resolve to be Virginia’s
advocate for equal justice.
2008 ARCHIVES
2007 ARCHIVES
OCTOBER 2007
Virginia Supreme Court Appointment
Governor Timothy M. Kaine appointed Chesapeake Circuit Court Judge S. Bernard Goodwyn to the Virginia Supreme
Court seat vacated when former Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy retired. Sworn in on October 19, 2007, Justice Goodwyn is
the third African-American to serve on the Virginia Supreme Court, preceded by Chief Justice Leroy Hassell and former
Justice John Charles Thomas. The University of Virginia Law School graduate became the first African-American
judge in Chesapeake when he began serving on the Chesapeake General District Court bench. He was elevated to the
Circuit Court in 1997. Forty-six year old Goodwyn, a native of Southampton County, Virginia, is married to Sharon Smith
Goodwyn, Esq., both of whom are members of the Old Dominion Bar Association.
ODBA President-Elect Inducted as Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation
ODBA President-Elect Beverly Burton was inducted as a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation. This honor is conferred
on lawyers who have distinguished themselves by professional excellence, service to the Bar and to their
communities. It is limited to one percent of the active and associate lawyers in Virginia. A reception, dinner, and
induction ceremony was held January 17, 2008 at the Williamsburg Lodge and Convention Center in conjunction with
the Annual Meeting of the Virginia Bar Association. Marilynn Goss, a former ODBA President, is a Virginia Law
Foundation Fellow and serves on the Foundation’s Fellows Council.
SEPTEMBER 2007
ODBA Member Named New American Judges Association President
Chesapeake Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Eileen A. Olds, was sworn in on September 29, 2007, as
President of the American Judges Association at the organization’s conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. A 1982
graduate of the Marshall Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary, Judge Olds, the first African-
American female to serve on the bench in Chesapeake, received the Thurgood Marshall Award from the National Bar
Association in August of this year. She is a member of the Old Dominion Bar Association.
Former ODBA President Retires from Bench
Judge Gammiel G. Poindexter, ODBA President during 1980-1982, retired from the Sixth Judicial District General
District Court bench on October 1, 2007. Judge Poindexter began serving on the bench September 1995, and presided
over civil and criminal matters in Greensville, Emporia and Sussex. She handled one of the highest caseloads per
judge in the Commonwealth from 1995 until 2001, when another judgeship was added to the Sixth Judicial District.
Judge Poindexter was Chief Judge of the General District Court from October 1999 to July 2002. A 1969 graduate of
Louisiana State University Law School, she was Commonwealth’s Attorney of Surry County from January 1, 1976 to
August 31, 1995. She is married to Gerald G. Poindexter, Esq., Commonwealth’s Attorney for Surry County. Both are
long-time members of the ODBA.
AUGUST 2007
ODBA Founder Dies
August 5, 2007 - Oliver W. Hill, Sr. passed away at his home on August 5, 2007, at the age of one hundred. Mr. Hill,
one of the founders of the Old Dominion Bar Association, was a retired civil rights attorney who, along with
Hon. Spottswood Robinson, and Hon. Thurgood Marshall, paved the way for enormous social change in America
through his work on behalf of Prince Edward County, Virginia school children in the landmark Brown v. Board of
Education case. Feted in honor of his 100th birthday in May 2007, in 1999 Mr. Hill was awarded the highest American
civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and in 2005 received the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest honor.
Mr. Hill lay in state for viewing by the public at the Executive Mansion in Richmond, Virginia, on Saturday, August 11,
2007, and a memorial service was held on Sunday, August 12, 2007 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in
Richmond, Virginia. Mr. Hill was laid to rest at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Richmond.
ODBA Judicial Selection Committee Evaluates Virginia Supreme Court Candidates
August 17, 2007 - The ODBA Judicial Selection Committee evaluated fourteen candidates for the seat of retiring
Virginia Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth B. Lacy. The ODBA Executive Committee considered the Committee's
report at its August 18th meeting and reported its findings and recommendations to Governor Timothy Kaine. The
Judicial Selection Committee evaluated the candidates for retiring Virginia Court of Appeals Judge James W. Benton
on August 30, 2007.
JULY 2007
ODBA Executive Committee Member Pamela Boston Elected Vice-President of NBA
ODBA Executive Committee member and former Treasurer Pamela F. Boston, Esq.,was elected a Vice-President of
the National Bar Association at its annual meeting in July. Ms. Boston has served the NBA in several capacities,
including Region IV Coordinator of the NBA MLK Advocacy Competition, Publisher/Editor of the Region IV Newsletter,
NBA Board Member-At-Large, and most recently as Region IV Director. A recipient of two NBA Presidential Awards,
Ms. Boston will oversee the activities pertaining to membership for the NBA in her capacity as Vice-President.
Ms. Boston was Associate General Counsel and Special Assistant Attorney General for Virginia Commonwealth
University from November 1995 to January 2006. She was appointed General Counsel and Assistant Attorney General
for Norfolk State University February 2006.
ODBA Treasurer Helivi Holland Sworn in Suffolk's first Deputy City Attorney
July 27, 2007 - ODBA Treasurer, Helivi Holland, Esq., was sworn in as the City of Suffolk's first Deputy City Attorney.
Ms. Holland joined the Suffolk City Attorney's Office in 2002 as an Assistant City Attorney after being a
prosecutor in the cities of Portsmouth and Suffolk for a total of ten years. Formerly an adjunct community college
professor, she also was a certified trainer for the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work and
was a guardian ad litem for more than 10 years. Ms. Holland began her legal career in Suffolk with Benn and Benn,
the law firm of the late Herman T. Benn, Esq. and his widow, Marian Benn.
Virginia Court of Appeals Judge James W. Benton Announces Retirement
The Honorable James W. Benton, Jr., a judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals, announced he will retire Oct. 1, 2007.
A graduate of Temple University and the University of Virginia School of Law, Judge Benton was appointed to the court
of appeals when it was created in 1985. A long-time member of the Old Dominion Bar Association, Judge Benton was
the first, and only, African American appointed to the Virginia Court of Appeals.
Suffolk Attorney, Herman T. Benn, Dies
Herman T. Benn, Esq., a Suffolk, Virginia attorney and long-time member of the Old Dominion Bar Association, passed
away on July 20, 2007. Mr. Benn's long career included a win before the United States Supreme Court in Johnson v.
Commonwealth of Virginia, in which the court held that "[s]tate-compelled segregation in a court of justice is a
manifest violation of the State's duty to deny no one the equal protection of its laws." Mr. Benn represented an African
American who was charged with contempt of court when he sat in the section of court reserved for whites only. His
widow, Marian Benn, Esq., is also a member of the Old Dominion Bar Association.
Visit this link to a Virginian-Pilot newspaper story for details of Mr. Benn's career: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-
Pilot/issues/1997/vp970215/02150225.htm
APRIL 2007
ODBA President-Elect Receives Distinguished 2007 LGA Cherin Award
April 20, 2007 - Hampton - The Local Government Attorneys of Virginia, Inc. presented ODBA President-Elect
Beverly A. Burton with the 2007 Cherin Award for Outstanding Deputy or Assistant City, County, or Town Attorney. The
award recognizes an attorney who has demonstrated distinguished public service that has enhanced the image of local
government attorneys in the Commonwealth and reflects a personal commitment to the highest ethical and
professional principles. Attorney Burton is the first African-American to win this award.
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