
DATE: Thursday, September 4, 1997           TAG: 9709040426

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MARC DAVIS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:  152 lines

CELEBRITY ATHLETES FLOCK TO BEACH LAW FIRM THEY'RE ALL-STARS IN THEIR COURT

Your name is Barry Parkhill and you're a big-shot basketball star with the Virginia Squires. You've got legal problems. The team is bouncing paychecks like Meadowlark Lemon at halfcourt. Who do you call?

Tom Shuttleworth, Virginia Beach lawyer. Lawsuit filed, contract paid.

That was 1974. Fast forward.

Now it's 1995. Your name is Allen Iverson and you're a big-shot basketball star, a high school phenom with a humongo future. And you've got legal problems. A bowling alley brawl turns ugly and you're in prison. Who do you call?

Same lawyer, Shuttleworth. Appeal filed, conviction overturned. Hello NBA.

Fast forward again.

Now it's 1997. Your name is Courtney Alexander. You're a big-shot basketball star at the University of Virginia. Top scorer on the team. And you've got legal problems. Police say you beat up your girlfriend. Who do you call?

Yep, same guy.

If this is starting to look like a pattern, well, maybe it is.

Last week, if you had a TV clicker or a newspaper subscription, you saw Shuttleworth and his partner, Larry Woodward, a couple of middle-aged Beach lawyers with clients who are sports celebrities. Maybe on ESPN. Maybe USA Today.

It was that kind of week. There was Alexander and the girlfriend on Monday. On Tuesday it was Iverson - second time around, this one for gun and marijuana charges.

Last year it was Harold Deane, another U.Va. basketball star in trouble. Last month it was Andre Cason, the world's fastest man, looking for routine legal help. Before that, it was Rey Ordonez, Norfolk Tides (and now New York Mets) shortstop, for a traffic ticket.

Pretty good for a couple of guys who couldn't shoot 50 percent from the line if a date with Cindy Crawford were the grand prize.

``Let's just say they didn't check our athletic prowess when they hired us,'' Shuttleworth says.

Around Hampton Roads, they're a prominent pair: Shuttleworth, 51, and Woodward, 40. In court, they often work together, sometimes separately.

Their law firm - Shuttleworth, Ruloff & Giordano in Virginia Beach - is among the biggest in town. Sixteen lawyers practice everything from criminal law to real estate.

And it attracts some of the most interesting cases around.

In 1986, there was Karen Diehl, the mom who raised 17 kids in a yellow school bus, then paddled one son to death. In 1995, there was Kelly Dara, the high school student who killed a classmate.

Mostly, though, Shuttleworth handles civil cases. Many have made headlines. In the past three years alone, Shuttleworth handled a bunch, including:

The 19-year-old Granby High School football player who challenged the league's age limit. (He won.)

The two bystanders killed in a high-speed police chase in downtown Norfolk. (A $3.4 million settlement from the drunk's insurance company. A lawsuit against the police is pending.)

The landlords whose tenants, a family of four, died from carbon monoxide poisoning in a Norfolk rental house. (Shuttleworth represented the landlords. Their insurance company paid $975,000.)

The three moms who say a Beach gymnastics school mentally abused their young daughters. (In mediation.)

And then came Allen Iverson.

Iverson, the basketball phenom from Hampton, found himself in a big scrape, a racial brawl at a Peninsula bowling alley. He and some friends were charged with ``maiming by mob'' and convicted.

Iverson got a new lawyer, then another. The third lawyer was Shuttleworth. He got the case on referral from a colleague.

It drew national press. Sports Illustrated did a big piece. Iverson was nationally known, and the verdict seemed weird. Shuttleworth and Woodward appealed.

Gov. L. Douglas Wilder granted Iverson clemency, then an appeals court threw out the conviction. Iverson probably was guilty of assault, the court ruled, but not ``maiming by mob.''

Word spread.

``The fact that we were representing Allen Iverson had a lot to do with Deane and Alexander coming to us,'' Shuttleworth says.

The second Iverson case - marijuana and concealed weapon charges - was an even bigger splash. Iverson was a major star, No. 1 draft pick in 1996, NBA rookie of the year in 1997.

By the time Iverson plea-bargained the case last week, media was all over it. Shuttleworth got so many press calls, his voice mail overflowed.

Shuttleworth and Woodward refuse to talk about the recent cases in detail, or even tell tales about the basketball celebs. But they agree it was an intense experience. In court last week, 30 reporters and photographers from Norfolk, Richmond, Washington and Philadelphia, where Iverson plays for the 76ers, packed the aisles.

``In any case where you handle a prominent person, there's always added pressure,'' Woodward says. ``You're in a fishbowl. Everybody's watching what you do.''

The irony: Neither lawyer is a standout athlete.

Woodward played football and lacrosse at Hampden-Sydney College. Shuttleworth played football and basketball in high school in Illinois. ``My favorite refrain was: Put me in, coach!'' Shuttleworth recalls.

And despite the clientele, Shuttleworth's office is not dominated by sports memorabilia. A signed poster of Muhammad Ali graces one wall: ``To Tom - One day I will come and get you in this ring so be ready,'' it says. A smaller snapshot of Ali and Shuttleworth cocking fists at each other sits on a corner table.

And, of course, on a far wall are framed newspaper clippings from the Iverson case. The fattest headline: ``Iverson Freed By Governor.''

``You know,'' Shuttleworth says, ``we had a big, successful criminal practice before Iverson.''

``We do good work,'' Woodward says. ``We treat 'em right. We get back to 'em. We're accessible.''

Some local lawyers have high praise for Shuttleworth. Since 1990, he has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America - one of 21 from South Hampton Roads in the field of personal injury law.

``He has a reputation among the bar of being a good trial lawyer, a damn good trial lawyer,'' says Moody ``Sonny'' Stallings, a Virginia Beach lawyer. ``I would be very comfortable with Tom representing me in a matter.''

``Tom's got an excellent trial reputation,'' agrees Larry Slipow, another Virginia Beach attorney. ``I think anybody will tell you that.''

Well, maybe not everybody.

With his high media profile, Shuttleworth occasionally rubs people the wrong way. Some see him as a publicity hog. Virginia Beach's top prosecutor, Commonwealth's Attorney Bob Humphreys, is unimpressed with Shuttleworth.

``Among prosecutors,'' Humphreys says, ``I'd say he's a legend in his own mind. He's not a bad lawyer, but he's not in the same category as Dick Brydges or James Broccoletti or Franklin Swartz or Andrew Sacks. . . He's holding press conferences every time you turn around.''

To which Shuttleworth says: ``These cases are about our clients, not about us. . . Every lawyer likes to see his name in the paper, but it never took front-and-center stage. We never put our interests in front of the clients'.''

Still, the publicity from Iverson, Deane and Alexander hasn't exactly hurt business.

Four weeks ago, Cason, the Virginia Beach sprinter who holds the world record for 60 meters, paid a call. Nothing serious; just routine legal stuff. ``That,'' Shuttleworth says, ``was a direct result of the Allen Iverson case.''

But the most gratifying, Shuttleworth and Woodward say, is when a client like Iverson returns - after becoming a national celebrity and signing for mega-millions in Philadelphia.

``It's much harder to keep a client,'' Woodward says, ``than to get a client.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos

STEVE EARLEY/The Virginian-Pilot

Tom Shuttleworth, left, and Larry Woodward are two of the 16

attorneys in the firm of Shuttleworth, Ruloff & Giordano, one of the

biggest law offices in Virginia Beach. The firm has represented

several high-profile sports figures.

COURTNEY ALEXANDER

ALLEN IVERSON

REY ORDONEZ