Leonard C. Heath, Jr.

In 2018-19 Len served as the 80^th President of the Virginia State Bar, the state agency that regulates and governs the approximately 32,000 lawyers who are in good standing across the Commonwealth of Virginia. Len was the first attorney from the Virginia Peninsula to serve in this capacity in over 50 years.

Len is a trial attorney. He has extensive experience in trying cases across Virginia, in both state and federal courts. He has handled a wide variety of legal matters, including personal injury, wrongful death, business litigation, will/trust/estate disputes, and real estate litigation. This experience has earned him a place on the coveted Super Lawyers' list, and has also helped him secure an "AV Preeminent" rating from Martindale Hubbell and a "Superb" rating from AVVO.

In January 2020, Len was inducted as a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation. Fellows are recognized as leaders in the profession, not just in their practices, but in their communities. This honor is held by less than 1% of Virginia attorneys. Len is also a Fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America, which is a close-knit, peer-selected, and aggressively diverse honorary society of 3,500 trial lawyers across the country. Less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers are invited to join this organization.

Len is also recognized at the state and national levels as an expert in law student and lawyer well-being. He currently serves on Virginia Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program and is a member of the Virginia Supreme Court Wellness Advisory Committee. 

Bar Admissions

• Virginia, 1986
• U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia
• U.S. District Court Western District of Virginia
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court Eastern District of Virginia
• U.S. Court of Appeals 4th Circuit
• U.S. Supreme Court

Education

• The College of William and Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, Williamsburg, Virginia
  • Juris Doctorate - 1986
  • William and Mary Law Review, Editor, 1985 - 1986
• College of William and Mary, The Raymond A. Mason School of Business
  • Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Business Management - 1982

Associations & Memberships

• AV Preeminent Martindale-Hubbell
• Fellow, Virginia Law Foundation
• Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America
• Super Lawyers, Business Litigation, 2005- 2009, 2011, 2012, 2016-2022
• Legal Elite, Virginia Business Magazine, 2005 - 2007
• AVVO Superb Rating
• Top Lawyers of Coastal Virginia, 2015, 2018-2022

Len and his wife, Kimberly, have three adult children; Jordan, Caitlin, and Kyle.

• Why Lawyer Well-Being is Important to Society, 31 Regent University Law Review 1 (2018) -https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58ebcb941b10e3a416521b1f/t/5c55e95cec212d2d5a99dbe2/1549134177074/2018_Fall+Final+Vol_31_1.pdf
• A Hospital’s Dilemma: The Legal Implication of Promulgating Guideline Concerning Human Immunodeficiency Virus, 23 University of Richmond Law Review 30 (1988) - https://scholarship.richmond.edu/lawreview/vol23/iss1/
• President’s Message, Virginia Lawyer Well-Being: “We keep moving forward…,” Virginia Lawyer Magazine, April, 2019 - http://virginialawyer.vsb.org/publication/?m=53176&i=582864&p=12&ver=html5
• President’s Message, Forthcoming Report on the Occupational Risks of the Practice of Law, Virginia Lawyer Magazine, February, 2019 - http://virginialawyer.vsb.org/publication/?m=53176&i=568538&p=8&ver=html5
• Lawyer Independence: Atticus Finch, Emerging Technology, and the American Lawyer, Virginia Lawyer Magazine, December, 2018 - http://virginialawyer.vsb.org/publication/?m=53176&i=551398&p=26&ver=html5
• President’s Message, Coming Soon: Virginia’s New JLAP, Virginia Lawyer Magazine, December, 2018 - http://virginialawyer.vsb.org/publication/?m=53176&i=551398&p=10&ver=html5
• President’s Message, A Shout Out to Virginia’s Voluntary Bar Associations, Virginia Lawyer Magazine, October, 2018 - http://virginialawyer.vsb.org/publication/?m=53176&i=533485&p=10&ver=html5
• President’s Message, The Power of Words, Virginia Lawyer Magazine, August, 2018 - http://virginialawyer.vsb.org/publication/?m=53176&i=520281&p=12&ver=html5

Collaborative Publication

• The Occupational Risks of the Practice of Law, Report of the Virginia State Bar President’s Special Committee on Lawyer Well-Being, 2019 - https://www.vsb.org/docs/VSB_wellness_report.pdf
• 'A Constant Burden': Law School Debt Affects Well-being, Life Plans, Access to Justice Quoted in (americanbar.org), ABA Bar Leader, January and February, 2021 - https://www.americanbar.org/groups/bar_services/publications/bar_leader/2020_21/january-february/a-constant-burden-law-school-debt-affects-well-being-life-plans-access-to-justice/

Presentations

• Regent University Law Review Symposium: "Mental Health Within the Law," Panelist, 2018 -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydotLgCHvxA

Podcasts

• Podcast for Legal Talk Network’s Digital Edge with Sharon Nelson and Jim Galloway. Addressing Lawyer Mental Wellness at the Virginia Bar, July 31, 2018

Cited

• Cited as national expert on Lawyer Well-Being in New York State Bar Association Attorney Well-Being Task Force Report entitled This is Us: From Striving Alone to Thriving Together, 2021 -https://nysba.org/app/uploads/2021/10/Report-on-Task-Force-on-WellBeing-APPROVED-HOD-no-comments-or-staff-memo.pdf