There are probably very few people in Virginia who can name one of the seven justices on the Supreme Court of Virginia; many people probably don’t even know Virginia has a Supreme Court.
But for those who follow Virginia government, the name of one justice — Leroy R. Hassell Sr., who died Wednesday at the age of 55 — will go down in history.
In 1989, Gov. Gerald Baliles tapped the Norfolk native and partner in one of the state’s most powerful law firms to be the second black American member of the Supreme Court of Virginia. Hassell himself was stepping into the seat of the commonwealth’s first black justice, John Charles Thomas.
Stepping into the seat occupied by one history maker, Hassell proceeded to blaze his own path into the annals of Virginia history over the course of the next 20 years, becoming the first black chief justice of the Supreme Court in 2003.
The son of two educators in the Norfolk school system, Hassell grew up in the final days of Jim Crow’s long, painful and deadly reign in Virginia. By the time he was ready to enter college, however, the commonwealth’s public schools, colleges and unversities had been integrated. He entered the University of Virginia, graduating in 1977, and headed off to Harvard University School of Law.
Right out of law school, he joined McGuireWoods, one of Virginia’s most powerful law firms, making full partner in just six years. As he was developing specialities in commercial and professional-liability litigation, he put his legal talents to use in his community, serving with the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority and on the Richmond School Board. Eventually he served as chairman of the schools panel.
But it was a justice of the Virginia Supreme Court that Hassell made his most long lasting contributions.
According to Media General News Service, one of the most important initiatives he undertook was a review of Virginia’s mental-health laws. He focused on gaps in the system and proposed ways to strength the system to protect better both the public and the mentally ill, a full year before the deadly Virginia Tech massacre in April 2007. Many of his panel’s recommentations were subsequently enacted by the General Assembly following the tragedy in Blacksburg.
Hassell was a fierce advocate for Virginia’s judicial system, fighting for the funding needed to modernize the judiciary and to hold judges to the highest possible legal standards.
At his heart, however, he was an advocate for justice, for opening the doors of the courthouse to all comers and for ensuring the scales of justice were forever in balance.
For you see, he knew what it was like for the system to be stacked against an individual. He wanted his nation to live up to its promise: with liberty and justice for all.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement