Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

Collection is open to research.

Use Restrictions

Because the library is not open to the general public, researchers should contact the library to arrange access to the collection.

Preferred Citation

Remembrances of Chief Justice Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr., Accession #00031707, Supreme Court of Virginia Archives, Virginia State Law Library, Richmond, Va.

Acquisition Information

Transferred to the Virginia State Law Library, August 2011.

Biographical Information

Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr. (1955-2011) was appointed to the Supreme Court of Virginia in 1989. He was elected to a four-year term as Chief Justice in 2003 and reelected in 2007 and served until his death in February 2011. He was born in Norfolk and earned an undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and a JD from Harvard University. Hassell was the first African American to serve as chief justice on the court.

Scope and Content

The collection contains video recordings of judges' personal remembrances of Chief Justice Hassell, recorded at the Virginia Judicial Conference of Virginia in Roanoke, Virginia, in May 2011 and the Virginia Judicial Conference for District Court Judges in Virginia Beach, Virginia, in August 2011. Two additional interviews were recorded at the Supreme Court Building in Richmond in June 2011. Transcript available.

F. Bruce Bach, retired circuit court judge, Fairfax County (5 minutes, 19 seconds), recorded in Roanoke. Bach worked with Hassell in 2005, when he served as interim executive secretary, or court administrator.

Rufus Banks, Jr., chief judge, juvenile and domestic relations court, Chesapeake (1 minute, 10 seconds), recorded in Virginia Beach.

Stephen D. Benjamin, Richmond defense lawyer (9 minutes, 34 seconds), recorded in Richmond. Benjamin talks about working with Hassell on an initiative to improve training and support for court-appointed defense attorneys.

D. Eugene Cheek, judge, general district court, Richmond (1 minute, 51 seconds), recorded in Virginia Beach.

Roxie O. Holder, judge, general district court, Portsmouth (53 seconds), recorded in Virginia Beach.

Birdie H. Jamison, judge, general district court, Richmond (1 minute, 7 seconds), recorded in Virginia Beach.

H. Thomas Padrick, Jr., judge, circuit court, Virginia Beach (8 minutes, 7 seconds), recorded in Roanoke. Padrick and Hassell served together on the Committee on District Courts.

Cleo E. Powell, judge, Court of Appeals of Virginia (5 minutes), recorded in Richmond. Powell met Hassell when they were both students at the University of Virginia in the 1970s.

Angela Roberts, judge, juvenile and domestic relations court, Richmond (4 minutes, 11 seconds), recorded in Virginia Beach.

Thomas S. Shadrick, retired judge, circuit court, Virginia Beach (4 minutes), recorded in Roanoke. Shadrick talks about Hassell's work mentoring children in the Virginia Beach school system.

Phillip Trompeter, judge, juvenile and domestic relations court, Roanoke. Trompeter served with Hassell on the Committee on District Courts, recorded in Virginia Beach.