On June 30, 2020, Leonard C. Heath, Jr. attended a ceremony in the main courtroom of the Virginia Supreme Court for the investiture of Brian Buniva as the 82nd President of the Virginia State Bar. Normally presidents are sworn in at the Annual Dinner that culminates the Annual Meeting of the Virginia State Bar in Virginia Beach. However, because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Virginia State Bar Annual Meeting was canceled for the first time since 1945, the last year of World War II. As a result, Mr. Buniva was sworn in as President of the Virginia State Bar by Justice William Mims before a small group of 13 people.
With Mr. Buniva’s investiture, Mr. Heath completed a tour of duty that included ten years on Bar Council, six years on the Executive Committee, and three years as an officer of the VSB. As an officer, Len served as the President-elect for 2017-18, President for 2018-19, and Immediate Past-President for 2019-20.
During this three-year officer commitment, he spoke in the following Virginia cities and towns: Alexandria, Charlottesville, Eastville, Fairfax, Fredericksburg, Leesburg, Lynchburg, Manassas, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg, Portsmouth, Richmond, Roanoke, Suffolk, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, and Wytheville.
He also attended conferences and meetings, including the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association, in the following cities: Chicago, Las Vegas, Memphis, Missoula, New Orleans, New York, and Vancouver (British Columbia).
As President of the VSB, he focused on the wellbeing of judges and lawyers. During his year as President, Virginia became a role model for other states for its Judges and Lawyers Wellness Initiative. As a result, he was asked to speak at the Bolch Judicial Institute Program (sponsored by the Duke Law School) at the Miami School of Law in February 2019 and at a workshop sponsored by the National Conference of Bar Presidents and the American Bar Association in Austin, Texas in February 2020.
During his term as President of the VSB, Len also served as the Chair of the Virginia State Bar President’s Special Committee on Lawyer Well-Being which published a report in May of 2019 entitled “The Occupational Risks of the Practice of Law.” That report has now been used as a resource by many bar associations including the following: American Bar Association, Alabama Bar Association, Colorado Supreme Court and Office of Attorney Regulation, New York Bar Association, Sacramento Bar Association, and Vermont Bar.
Len was the first attorney from the Virginia Peninsula to serve as President of the Virginia State Bar in over 50 years.
Len Heath is an award-winning, trial-tested attorney with over 30 years of experience in legal matters such as personal injury, wrongful death, business litigation, trust and estate disputes, and real estate disputes. If you are looking for a skilled Virginia attorney, contact him today.