Special Committee on Lawyer Referral
Robert L. Flax, chair
The Virginia Lawyer Referral Service (VLRS) has helped citizens of Virginia, the United States, and abroad obtain effective and high-quality legal assistance since 1977. The VLRS — a public service arm of the Virginia State Bar — offers toll-free and Richmond-area phone numbers that receive more than twenty thousand calls yearly from persons in need of assistance with legal matters in Virginia. The VLRS provided more than 3,000 prescreened and prepaid referrals to its six hundred panel members for the 2011-12 fiscal year. More than 50 percent of those referrals have resulted in ongoing legal services, provided by our panel members.
During the 2012 Lawyers Expo at the VSB Annual Meeting, the VLRS with the main focus on Virginia consumers, continued débuting its new logo, website, and tagline: “The Virginia Lawyer Referral Service: Connecting the public with lawyers for more than thirty years.” VLRS displayed its new consumer resource “Take-One” cards and they were given to VSB members and annual meeting attendees to bring awareness to the VLRS statewide customer service. The VLRS Take-One cards will be available throughout Virginia to promote the services the VLRS provides to its consumers — the general public, businesses, and other lawyers.
Special thanks to the VLRS 2011-12 committee members: Charles E. Adams of Richmond, August Bequai of McLean, Teresa S. Cole of Vienna, Joan B. Davis of Richmond, Vice Chair Pamela C. Gavin of Henrico, Renae R. Patrick of Winchester, Rhodes B. Ritenour of Richmond, Elizabeth Ross of Leesburg, and Eric R. Spencer of Roanoke for their service and statewide attorney recruitment efforts that resulted in more than seventy-five first-time VLRS panelists. The Committee gives special appreciation to exiting committee members John V. Robinson of Henrico and Christine Mougin-Boal of Leesburg for their many years of service and dedication to the committee, and their continuing service as VLRS panel members. We welcome our newest members: Judy A. Dugger of Fairfax and William F. Quillian III of Lynchburg and look forward to their ideas and the energy they will bring to the committee. Thanks also to the VLRS staff: Coordinator Toni B. Dunson and staff assistants Lydia M. Maddox and Sheree L. Patterson for their tireless efforts to sustain and improve the VLRS.