First: the formal part, followed by why I am proud of what I do for my clients:
Richard N. Shapiro, designated as a "Super Lawyer" in Virginia, practices injury law exclusively with the law firm of Shapiro, Cooper Lewis & Appleton, P.C. Rick served as staff assistant to U.S. Congressman Whitehurst (1979-1981) and graduated from George Mason Law School With Distinction in 1984. He served as a law clerk to Federal District Court Judge Robert C. Doumar in Norfolk. He co-authored "Railroad Health & Safety; a Litigator's Guide" which appears in a leading law encyclopedia, "American Jurisprudence Trials". Board Certified in Civil Trial Advocacy by the NBTA, he is a member of Primerus Society of Law Firms, a society of highly ethical and skilled lawyers who are screened by lawyers and judges before admission. Rick was elected chair of the Railroad Law section of the American Association for Justice (AAJ, 2005-2006). Licensed: VA, NC, WV, DC. Admitted: U.S. Supreme Court. Prior Injury Litigation: throughout eastern U.S.
Named a Super Lawyer, in Virginia (By Law & Politics) (less than 5% of lawyers selected); Selected in the Top 100 Trial Lawyers in VA (By ATLA);
About my journey to where I am now:
I think any person looking for a personal injury lawyer has an amazing number of choices, so I will basically tell the story of how I became a trial attorney for injured people.
While attending the University of Maryland at College Park, where I obtained a government and politics degree, I was lucky to get a job on Capitol Hill as an intern, and then was offered a full time job as a staff assistant for a Congressman. Learning how legislation really gets rolling, and also dealing with constituent interaction was great training for later becoming a lawyer. While I was working on Capitol Hill I decided to apply to law school and try to become a lawyer. I was to accepted George Mason Law School located in Northern Virginia. and graduated in the top 5% of my class, and also wrote a law review article which was published in the George Mason Law Review. And, I worked part time and piled up student loans, which took forever to repay!
I also heard about how it was great experience to obtain a clerkship for a federal judge so I put out a bunch of applications and ended up becoming a law clerk to a federal judge in Norfolk Virginia, my hometown. I spent a year, with pay, as one of the Federal Judge Robert Doumar’s law clerks and saw great (and some bad) trial lawyers in court in both civil and criminal cases every week. This was great training.
By 1993 I was exclusively doing personal injury law. I am now licensed to practice in North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, and Washington, DC, but actually handle personal injury litigation in nearly every state across the eastern United States by associating with other attorneys licensed in those states. I also applied for and now honored to be admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court.
I've been involved in all kinds of personal injury and wrongful death trials, including car wreck cases, trucking cases, railroad injury and derailment, chemical and toxic spill cases, etc. In many instances, my seriously injured client’s case settles at or just before a jury trial, because if I do a good job for my client, the defendant pushes hard to settle their case rather than face a jury.
I have also been an officer of the Railroad Section of the American Association of Justice, the largest nationwide civil trial injury lawyer network, and remain involved in the motor vehicle, trucking and railroad sections. Since 2006, I have been writing and editing personal injury law blog articles on Injuryboard, which is the largest injury law blog in the U.S. I write for Virginia Beach, Norfolk and NE NC Injuryboards. Over the years I have lectured to other personal injury lawyers on a national basis, in Virginia, and in the state of Georgia. I have been asked by organizations to speak on topics of injury law as well as evidence law.
One of the things that really motivates me as an injury lawyer is helping people that are clearly being taken advantage of by a corporation or by a claims adjuster. Believe me, I have lots of examples. I have had cases where a claims adjuster strings along an injured person, and then springs the statute of limitations defense on them after it is too late. On several occasions I was able to figure out how to file the suit in a different state (with a longer statute) and “revive” my clients claim. On other occasions I have had potential clients call me and tell me that another lawyer turned their case down. I’ve taken many cases that other lawyers have refused, and later settled the cases for substantial sums of money for (grateful) clients. Doing a good job means thinking about your client's case not only when you're in the office, but when you're home on the weekend, surfing the Internet on some other topic, or even when taking a shower. My job does not have any defined hours.
Also, I am a prolific inventor and I hold 14 United States patents (the patents cover “fold flat” wagons, carts, jogging strollers, etc. ) and I hold patents in South Africa, Australia, and several pending in China. I signed license agreements with several companies. I believe I am one of the only injury lawyers in the US that invent/design products, and actively practice injury law. It provides a unique perspective.
I am proud of being a lawyer, and especially proud of being a trial attorney. We have a framed poster in our law office reception area with the title: Where Would We Be Without Lawyers?” and it shows the nation’s “founding fathers” in an artist’s rendering with an empty silhouette for 35 of the famous faces--yes, 35 of the 55 framer’s of the Constitution were lawyers, and 25 of our nation’s presidents, including Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, were lawyers. Part of my duty as an attorney is to stand between corporations, insurance companies and government attempts to limit or wipe out the ultimate check and balance: the courthouse and our jury system. I am a strong believer in the US jury system as our system allows juries to decide important civil justice issues. The US jury system is vastly more important to our government system than most people realize and one of my roles is to see that the jury system is not eroded and that judges always recognize that most civil disputes should be resolved by juries, if they can not be settled before trial.
