Margulies Honored With Bar's Community Services Award

Pender & Coward partner Burke Margulies received the Virginia Beach Bar Association's Community Services Award for his work with families caring for relatives who are developmentally disabled.

Burke, who co-founded the Virginia Beach Community Trust, formed and chairs the Virginia Beach Trust for the Psychiatrically Disabled, and serves on the Community Services Board of Virginia Beach as well as the Professional Advisory boards of the United Way of Southampton Roads Foundation and the Tidewater Down Syndrome Association.

Mentoring Program in High Gear

Pender & Coward is mentoring three law clerks this summer from the College of William & Mary.

E. Carter Chandler is in her second year of law school. The Mechanicsville, Virginia native is under the supervision of A. W. Vandermeer where she is experiencing a wide range of assignments.

Mark Pasciucci, a second year law student, worked for three years as a CPA in Boston before deciding on a career in the legal field. He is working with Doug Glenn where he hopes to sit in on some good action and watch lawyers "duke it out."

Josh Raynes was born in Virginia and attended Virginia Tech as an undergraduate. He is also a second year law student looking forward to working in many sections of the firm. Josh has already been assigned workers' compensation and trustee fraud issues as well as a mechanics lien problem, so it looks like he's well on his way to fulfilling that goal.

Blair-Davis joins Pender & Coward

Jo Ann Blair-Davis recently joined Pender & Coward as a shareholder. She practices in the areas of Estate Planning, Administration and Taxation. Jo Ann is a past chairman of the Board of Governors of the Trust and Estates Section of the Virginia State Bar and is listed in "The Best Lawyers in America." She currently serves as a Commissioner of Accounts for the Virginia Beach Circuit Court.

Blair-Davis is a 1982 graduate of Marshall-Wythe School of Law at William & Mary where she was a member of the Order of the Coif. She obtained her undergraduate degree from Old Dominion University where she graduated Summa Cum Laude.

P&C Attorney Jeff Rosen Helps Local Governments Win Lawsuits

Jeff Rosen successfully defended Virginia Beach's Sheriff in a wrongful death case filed by the father of a woman who died while incarcerated at the Virginia Beach Correctional Center. The woman suffered from end stage liver disease. Her father sued the sheriff and chief deputy alleging they violated her constitutional rights by failing to provide adequate medical care while in jail. After a four day trial the jury returned a verdict in less than an hour in favor of the defendants.

Rosen was instrumental in helping the Accomack County Sheriff's Department avoid a class action lawsuit. The suit was filed by a woman who claimed she was unconstitutionally strip searched while being incarcerated at the County Jail. A Norfolk U.S District Court judge dismissed the case on a motion for summary judgment and declined to certify it as a class action.

In Powhatan, Rosen represented the County Board of Supervisors in a suit filed by a former member of the Board who claimed her constitutional rights were violated by investigating her travel expenses. The Court of Appeals, in dismissing the suit, held that the members of the Board have qualified immunity and cannot be sued individually.