THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 20, 1997 TAG: 9701200067
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A9 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 73 lines
Term expires 2003.
Born Sept. 4, 1916, in Washington. Episcopalian. Educated at George Washington University. Trial justice, Fairfax County Court; judge, Virginia's 16th Circuit. Joined the court in 1961; became chief justice in 1981. Conservative. Established an intermediate appeals court to ease the highest court's workload. A. Christian Compton justice
Term expires 1999.
Born in Portsmouth, Oct. 24, 1929. Methodist. Educated at Washington and Lee University. Judge, Court of Law and Equity, 1966-74. Began serving on the court in 1974. Served in the U.S. Navy, 1953-56, and the U.S. Naval Reserve, 1956-62. Conservative. Known as a probing questioner. Lawrence L. Koontz Jr. justice
Term expires 2007.
Born Jan. 25, 1940. In August 1995, replaced Justice Henry H. Whiting. First Roanoke Valley jurist to serve on the Supreme Court in 61 years. Former circuit judge, charter member of the Virginia Court of Appeals. Roscoe B. Stephenson Jr. justice
Term expires 2005.
Born Feb. 22, 1922, in Covington. Presbyterian. Graduated from Washington and Lee University. Judge, Virginia's 25th Circuit, 1973-81. Appointed justice in 1981. Elizabeth B. Lacy justice
Term expires 2001.
Born Jan. 12, 1945, in Parris Island, S.C. First woman named to the Virginia Supreme Court. Nominated by Gov. Gerald L. Baliles. Assumed office January 1989. A former elementary school teacher who earned her law degree at the University of Texas, Lacy served in the state attorney general's offices in Virginia and Texas. She was the first woman named to serve on the State Corporation Commission. Known as a probing questioner. Leroy R. Hassell Sr. justice
Term expires 2002.
Born Aug. 17, 1955. Baptist. Grew up in Norfolk's Broad Creek section. Graduated from Norview High School, the University of Virginia and Harvard Law School. Became the second black justice in the state Supreme Court's history, in December 1989, when he replaced John Charles Thomas, the first. Consensus builder. Nearly always votes with the majority. Barbara M. Keenan justice
Term expires 2003.
Offices in Virginia Beach. Second woman to be placed on state's highest court. Replaced retired Justice Charles S. Russell in July 1991. Graduate of George Washington University Law School, former assistant commonwealth's attorney, first named a judge in 1980. Former judge, Virginia's 19th Circuit and state Court of Appeals. Often allies with Lacy. MEMO: Information compiled by Diana Diehl, news researcher, The
Virginian-Pilot.
Sources: Who's Who, The American Bench 1995/96, Report of the
Secretary of the Commonwealth, Virginian-Pilot files, The Associated
Press, Virginia Business, and Norfolk Law Library.
KEYWORDS: BIOGRAPHY VIRGINIA SUPREME COURT