Irving Blank's Lifelong Dream Comes Full Circle

Irving Blank has been a lawyer for more than four decades; he knew early on that his chosen career would include the legal profession. He says he devoted time during the early years of his career in courtrooms, not as prosecutor or part of the defense team, but as an observer. He wanted to pull from those experienced and successful lawyers who had ''it'', even if he couldn't quite quantify what ''it'' was. ''I would make time to go down and watch them'', says Blank. He says that the thrill of trying cases is still a learning opportunity that he takes with him, case after case. And he still loves it. These days, Blank serves as the Virginia State Bar's latest president. With more than 45,000 Virginia lawyers, we can only imagine the many opportunities he has to see skill, experience and perhaps even a bit of magic in the courtroom as it unfolds.

Virginia has always been home to Blank. It's where he built his impressive career and where he raised his family. That impressive career includes practice areas of personal injury, domestic relations, premise liability, criminal and construction litigation. He was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1967, the U.S. Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit in 1972 and the U.S. Supreme Court, District of Columbia, in 1978. He's also authored several pieces, including ''Trial Tactics for Premise Liability Cases'', which was featured in The Journal of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, Summer 1994 edition. And if his career weren't full enough, we also learned Blank served as a Captain in our nations military.

He remains with his firm, ParisBlank, LLP  where he was successful in one of the nation's first jury trials that allowed punitive damages in a civil case using criminal law procedures. He also served on the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society for more than a quarter century and served on many committees, including the Richmond Administration of Justice, Executive Committee, Judicial Committee and Richmond Trial Lawyers Association, among many more. He also was part of the Virginia Bar Association Commission responsible for developing the Virginia Principles of Professionalism. More recently, however, Blank has his sights set on keeping the state bar on an even track, always aware of various hiring freezes that affect law and order, and of course other issues relevant to his home state.

These days, you can be sure Irving Blank is focused on the law and specifically, the law relating to and affecting his beautiful home state of Virginia. Whether he's meeting with clients in his ParisBlank office or adjourning any number of meetings associated with his role as the Bar president, Irving Blank's first love was always the law and it remains as true today as it was then.