ALEXANDRIA, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–John A. Gibney Jr. has been selected to receive the prestigious 2023 American Inns of Court Professionalism Award for the Fourth Circuit. Chief Judge Roger Gregory of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will present the award during the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference. Gibney is a senior U.S. district judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
“Judge Gibney has been a superb judge since he assumed his position,” says Senator Timothy M. Kaine, who wrote in support of Gibney’s nomination for the award by the Lewis F. Powell Jr. American Inn of Court. “He is a lawyer’s judge, one whose extensive federal litigation practice before he came on the bench gives him a respect for lawyers who do the hard job of representing people in the federal court system.”
Nominated by President Barack Obama, Gibney assumed his judicial position in 2010. He took senior status in 2021. Gibney was previously in private practice. From 2003 until he became a judge, he was a partner and trial lawyer in the Richmond law firm ThompsonMcMullan PC. Between 1987 and 2003, he was a partner in the Richmond firm Shuford, Rubin & Gibney PC. From 1982 until 1984, he was an assistant attorney general in the litigation section of the Office of the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia. Gibney was also an associate at the firms Lacy & Mehfoud and Bell, Lacy & Baliles.
Drawing on his own battles with alcohol, Gibney has spent decades working with Virginia Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, an organization that helps lawyers with addictions or other problems that impede their ability to effectively practice law.
Gibney has also been dedicated to preparing the next generation of lawyers. He has taught undergraduate and law students at William & Mary and the University of Richmond School of Law. In 2021, he received William & Mary’s St. George Tucker Adjunct Professorship Award, which recognizes outstanding members of the law school’s adjunct faculty.
Gibney received his undergraduate degree from William & Mary in 1973 and earned his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1976.
The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.
