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PRACTICE OVERVIEW:
Mr. Emmert limits his practice to appellate advocacy
in the state and federal courts. He has briefed
and argued numerous significant cases that have
resulted in published opinions in a variety of
fields of the law.
EXPERIENCE:
Mr. Emmert has been with the firm since 1999,
when he returned to the private sector after spending
nine years in the Virginia Beach City Attorney’s
Office. It was in the public sector that he developed
the skills of an appellate advocate, as he represented
the City and its officers, employees, and agents
in a variety of appellate cases. Those included
numerous challenges to municipal authority; major
tort and eminent domain litigation; tax and valuation
appeals; and the nation’s first appellate
interpretation of the Telecommunications Act of
1996.
Since returning to the private
sector, Mr. Emmert has accepted appellate challenges
in a large number of cases across many fields.
He has risen to the chairmanship of the Virginia
State Bar’s Appellate Practice Subcommittee,
making him the principal spokesman for Virginia’s
appellate lawyers. He is a member of the Supreme
Court’s Appellate Rues Advisory Commission,
and of the Boyd-Graves Conference of the Virginia
Bar Association. He is listed in The Best Lawyers
in America in the field of Appellate Law, and
in November 2007 was honored by Virginia Lawyers
Weekly as one of 15 “Leaders in the Law.”
Mr. Emmert is a frequent lecturer
on appellate advocacy before a variety of bar
associations. In 2005, he introduced to Virginia
the symposium method of teaching appellate lawyers,
covering individual topics in depth with very
small groups of attorneys, to ensure maximum interaction
between faculty and attendees. The Appellate Practice
Subcommittee continues to present two such symposia
per year for the benefit of Virginia lawyers.
EDUCATION:
For most of his life, Mr. Emmert has lived in Virginia.
He attended Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake,
graduating in 1976. He then attended Richmond College,
a division of the University of Richmond, where
he received a Bachelors of Arts in Economics in
1979, graduating magna cum laude. He received departmental
honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. In 1982
he received a Juris Doctor Degree from the University
of Virginia School of Law.
MEMBERSHIPS AND AFFILATIONS:
Mr. Emmert is a member of the Virginia Bar Association
(Boyd-Graves Conference), the American Bar Association
(Council of Appellate Lawyers), the Virginia Trial
Lawyers Association (co-chair, Amicus Curiae Committee),
the Virginia Beach Bar Association (Circuit Court
Liaison Committee), the Federal Bar Association,
and the Virginia State Bar (chairman, Appellate
Practice Subcommittee).
lsemmert@sykesbourdon.com
emmert@virginia-appeals.com
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