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  • 2024 Annual Meeting

2024 Annual Meeting

  • 23 Oct 2024
  • 6:00 PM
  • 25 Oct 2024
  • 1:00 PM
  • Kingsmill Resort, 1010 Kingsmill Road, Williamsburg, VA 23185

Registration

(depends on selected options)

Base fee:
  • Email agilbody@vada.org for registration code.
  • You may add a guest registration for $125. Guests are invited to join us at the Wednesday and Thursday receptions.
  • You may add a guest registration for $125. Guests are invited to join us at the Wednesday and Thursday receptions.

Registration is closed


Agenda

APPROVED FOR 8.5 CLE Hours (2.0 Ethics/1.0 Well-being)

Second Ethics Hour is in the Professional Liability
Breakout Session

Wednesday

6:00-7:00 

President’s Welcome Reception

7:30-9:30

 Dine Arounds (Various locations)

9:30-11:00 

Late Night


Registration



Thursday

    8:00-9:00 Registration and Buffet Breakfast
   9:00-10:00 Motions Practice 101
  10:00-11:00

The Art of Persuasive Arguments in the Courtroom

 11:15-12:15 Chat GPT and Other AI in the Practice of Law

 12:15-2:15 

Awards Luncheon

  2:30-4:30 

Litigation Section Breakouts

  4:30-6:00 

Break

  4:45-5:30 "From Goals to Greatness" Wellness Presentation

  5:00-6:00 Young Lawyers Informal Gathering

  6:00-7:30 

Bench-Bar Reception

  7:30-9:30 

Dinner on Your Own (Reservations Recommended) or Optional Women's Dinner

  9:30-11:00 

Late Night














Friday

  6:30-7:15

Riverview Yoga

  8:00-9:00

Breakfast Buffet


  9:00-9:50

Creating Good Relationships with Opposing Counsel


  10:00-10:50 

Elimination of Bias: Racial Bias in the Legal System


  10:50-11:50

The Lawyers Role in Helping Clients Survive Litigation


  11:50-12:05

Box Lunches Available


  12:05-1:15

Navigating Occupational Risks to Practicing Law


  1:15

Adjourn 



Registration Information

The registration fee includes all CLEs, meals and receptions. New members joining VADA will have their first-year membership fee waived for 2025.  First membership bill will be sent January 2026. For further details, contact Sherma Mather at smather@vada.org.

Guest registration fee includes Wednesday and Thursday receptions.  For guest ticket information for Thursday's Awards lunch, please contact Amy Gilbody at agilbody@vada.org. 

Cancellations accepted until October 11, 2024.  No refunds after October 11, but substitutions welcome anytime. Email Amy Gilbody at agilbody@vada.org for further information.

Hotel

Our room block has been extended and will be released the earlier of October 18, or when it fills, so book today.

Kingsmill is a place steeped in honored traditions and genuine Southern hospitality. In 1969 Anheuser-Busch purchased 3,900 acres of James River land with plans to build a large brewery. As part of the land purchase agreement, Anheuser-Busch agreed to develop hundreds of those acres into what is now Kingsmill Resort. Today, Kingsmill Resort retains those magnificent traits inherent in Kingsmill’s early life with grand accommodations, gracious hospitality and stately service. 

As a resort property, Kingsmill offers various room types and locations. See this property map for details. All of our events will be in the Resort Center, where there is plenty of free parking. River Rooms are located along the James River, closest to the Resort Center. Deluxe Rooms are located near Wareham's Pond and Resort Rooms are near the Tennis Club. Some room types have limited availability, so book your preferred room now.  The room block will close the earlier of October 13, or when it fills.



Wednesday Dine-Arounds

Our Dine Around slots are all full. Enjoy dinner, while networking with new or long-time VADA friends. It is Dutch treat, with each participant paying for their own meal. We will provide complimentary bus transportation from the resort to the Colonial Williamsburg (CW) area, walking distance from all restaurants, with the bus departing Kingsmill at 7:15 PM and leaving CW at 9:30 PM. 

  



Women's Section Dinner

Please join the Women’s Section on the Thursday evening of the Annual Meeting for a Paint & Sip.  An art instructor will lead an informal art class where each of us will paint a canvas from start to finish, while enjoying pizza, beverages, and each other’s company.  No art experience required.  The event will take place on-site at Kingsmill and supplies will be provided. Cost to attend is $25 and can be selected as an option during registration. 

Wellness Activities

Join the Wellness Committee for many activities designed to get you moving and improve your wellness journey.  We'll have a walk and run Thursday morning, "From Goals to Greatness" presentation by VADA favorite, Jim White, on Thursday afternoon, and river view yoga Friday morning.  Sign up for these activities when you register.

For each wellness event you attend, you will get an entry in the raffle for our wellness gift cards - if you go to all 3 events, you'll get 3 entries. Gift cards include:

  • -- $100 to Dick’s
  • -- $75 to Nike
  • -- $50 to REI

Best of luck! 

Community Service Project


In conjunction with our meeting, VADA is collecting monetary and in-kind donations for FISH, Inc.  FISH is a volunteer-operated, non-profit organization that provides food, clothing, and small housewares to persons in need who live in Williamsburg, James City County and York County. FISH fulfills its mission through the generosity of the Williamsburg community and the efforts of over 200 volunteers.

In addition to monetary contributions, which can be made online here, we are collecting in kind donations at the meeting.  Please click here for a list of the most needed items.  A representative from FISH will be onsite Friday morning to collect our donations. Thank you for your support.


Awards

Award for Excellence in Civil Litigation


Alan B. Rashkind
Furniss, Davis, Raskind & Saunders, P.C.

A graduate of Randolph-Macon College and the University of Virginia School of Law, Alan has been practicing law since 1972. Over the course of his career, he has set the standard for zealous advocacy and success as a civil litigator. Alan is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, the Virginia Law Foundation, and the American Bar Foundation. He is a charter member of the I’Anson-Hoffman American Inn of Court and a charter member and past Chair of the Boyd-Graves Conference of the Virginia State Bar.

Alan has been recognized by his peers as one of Virginia’s Legal Elite, a Virginia Super Lawyer, and among both the Best Lawyers in America and Virginia’s Best Lawyers. On three separate occasions, 2024 being the most recent, Best Lawyers has named Alan the Lawyer of the Year in Norfolk, Virginia, in the area of Personal Injury Litigation (Defendants). However contentious the case, Alan treats everyone involved with candor, courtesy, and respect. In 2019, the Norfolk Portsmouth Bar Association honored Alan with the prestigious Eggleston/I’Anson Professionalism Award. The Virginia Trial Lawyers Association honored Alan with its VTLA-VADA Civility and Professionalism Award in 2022.

Alan further is a gifted scholar, mentor, and teacher. He served for ten years as an Adjunct Professor at the William & Mary Law School. He is a co-author of the Virginia Insurance Case Finder, an essential treatise for practitioners of Virginia insurance law. Throughout his career, Alan has made it a priority to give back to his community, serving as a member and Chair of the Board of Trustees of Randolph-Macon College and as a founding trustee of the Chesapeake Bay Academy, a private school in Virginia Beach for students with learning differences.

As those who know him will attest, Alan brings to every matter he handles “intellectual virtuosity, strategic vision, and candid, timely advice. When a difficult case arises, … his voice on the other end of the phone has brought immediate reassurance that his client’s interests will be protected.” Alan’s business clients “often become personal clients, who place their utmost trust in him to handle the most delicate matters with discretion, levity, and upright zeal.” The Preamble to the Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct provides that “[a] lawyer should strive to attain the highest level of skill, to improve the law and the legal profession, and to exemplify the legal profession’s ideals of public service.” “These are aspirational goals that most lawyers will not live up to over the course of their careers, even after decades of practice. Alan exemplifies all of them.”

We will present the Award for Excellence in Civil Litigation to Alan during our Annual Meeting.


VADA-VTLA Civility and Professionalism Award


Malcolm “Mic” McConnell
Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen

The VADA Board of Directors is pleased to announce Malcolm “Mic” McConnell of Allen, Allen, Allen & Allen in Richmond as the recipient of the 2024 VADA-VTLA Civility and Professionalism Award! Now in its ninth year, this Award, which is given each year by the VADA to a member of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association and by the VTLA to a member of the VADA, honors an attorney who exhibits the highest degree of civility and professionalism in the practice of law and, through his or her interaction with others, promotes the highest levels of competence, integrity, and ethical conduct in the legal profession.

We will present Mic with this Award during our Annual Meeting.

Sponsors




     


                

         

                                  

Contact Amy Gilbody at agilbody@vada.org for sponsorship information.

Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys

11533 Busy Street, #327

N. Chesterfield, VA 23236

804-649-1002

Executive Director: Sherma Mather

Director of Meetings: Amy Gilbody

Journal of Civil Litigation Managing Editor: Molly Terry

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