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Senior Partner
Litigation & Intellectual Property Practice
Richmond
(804) 788-8522 Phone
(804) 788-8218 Fax
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| Practices |
Alternative Dispute
Resolution
Appellate
Constitutional &
Voting Rights
Litigation
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Practice focuses on appellate practice, general litigation, and alternative dispute resolution.
Relevant Experience 
- Justice, Supreme Court of Virginia for seven years; authored more than 200 decisions concerning contracts, torts, real property, trusts and estates, taxation-the full body of Virginia law; participated in several thousand appellate rulings.
- Admitted to practice: Supreme Court of Virginia, U.S. Supreme Court, District of Columbia Circuit, 4th, 6th, 9th, 10th and 11th Circuits.
- Argued appellate matters involving insurance coverage issues, traumatic brain injury, international letters of credit, dealership terminations, defamation, automobile crashworthiness, workers compensation, medical malpractice, construction dispute, public official's right to hold office, and product liability.
- Drafted appellate briefs regarding EPA regulations, Certificates of public need, trademark infringement, State environmental law, zoning, automobile crashworthiness, product liability, redistricting, public funding of business development, First Amendment billboard cases, asset purchase agreements, misappropriation of computer programs, trade secrets, state tax laws, maritime tort liability, and franchise law.
- Mediated high-profile dispute regarding construction of public facility; long-term dispute within religious institution; multi-party insurance coverage and liability issues.
- Arbitrated intellectual property dispute over ownership and use of photo database; construction dispute involving subsoil conditions; boundary dispute between Virginia localities; disputes arising under the World Anti-Doping Code in international sports.
- Litigated franchise issues such as failure to meet standards, location of competing franchises, installation of drive throughs and quality control of ingredients; litigated construction suits, personal injury defense and breach of buyout agreement.
- Conducted mock appellate proceedings for arguments in U.S. Supreme Court, Supreme Court of Virginia, Supreme Court of Georgia, the New York Court of Appeals, the Second Circuit, the District of Columbia Circuit, Fourth Circuit, the Eleventh Circuit, and the Federal Circuit.
- AAA Certified Mediator and Arbitrator
- AAA Panel Commercial Arbitrators
- AAA Panel International Arbitrators
- Panel of Arbitrators Vis International Arbitration Moot, Vienna Austria, March 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007
- Member, Court of Arbitration for Sport/Tribunal Arbitral du Sport, Lausanne, Switzerland, June 2005
Membership
- Member, Board of Visitors of the College of William & Mary
- Member, Board of Trustees of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation
- Member, Appellate Rules Advisory Committee of the Commonwealth of Virginia
- Member, Virginia State Bar, Virginia Bar Association, Richmond Bar Association, Old Dominion Bar Association, National Bar Association and American Bar Association
- Member, International Bar Association, Committee D
- Member, London Court of International Arbitration
- Member, Council of Appellate Lawyers, ABA Judicial Division
- Fellow, American Academy of Appellate Lawyers
- Former Member, Commission on the Tercentenary of the College of William & Mary
- Former Member, Board of Directors, Executive Committee, Law Committee, American Arbitration Association
- Former Member and Co-Chair, ABA National Conference Lawyers and Representatives of the Media
- Former Member, Advisory Committee, Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, Judicial Conference of the United States
Education - J.D., University of Virginia School of Law, 1975
- B.A., University of Virginia, with distinction, American Government, 1972
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John Thomas
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