Latino Lawyer Among Candidates for Bench

Of the 175 circuit, appeals and Supreme Court judges in Virginia, not one is of Latino or Asian descent.

According to the Hispanic Bar Association of Virginia, perhaps only one Hispanic person has ever served on a Circuit Court or higher, all known as "courts of record" in the state, although no one keeps track of such things.

That number could change today. A Latino candidate from Leesburg, Alexander N. Levay Jr., was among six people interviewed yesterday by the General Assembly's Courts of Justice committees for an opening on the state Court of Appeals.

Levay, an experienced criminal defense, civil and domestic relations lawyer, has been rated highly qualified by every bar association that interviewed him, including the Virginia State Bar, the Virginia Women Attorneys Association and seven others.

This morning, the House and Senate caucuses will meet in closed sessions to select their preferred candidates, and both chambers must agree on one before the legislative session ends Feb. 28. If they don't, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) can fill the vacancy, but the General Assembly must reconsider the appointment next year.

Levay faces five well-qualified candidates, including four judges and a commonwealth's attorney, and he does not claim to have any powerful political patrons. Virginia's Byzantine process for selecting judges -- using the legislature rather than the governor or voters, as most states do -- could pose problems unrelated to Levay's qualifications.

"The General Assembly and the governor have a historic opportunity to nominate a Latino to a court of record," said Manuel E. Leiva, president of the state's Hispanic Bar Association. Leiva said that he often hears from lawyers who say they are baffled by judges or prosecutors who don't understand Hispanic culture and that having a Hispanic judge would make the appeals court "more attuned to the issues that arise in a trial."

Of the roughly 7.8 million people who live in Virginia, nearly 520,000 are of Hispanic descent, about 6.6 percent, according to 2007 census figures. About 423,000, or 5.4 percent, are of Asian descent. Those percentages are much higher in Northern Virginia, and the vacancy that Levay seeks to fill is being created by retiring Judge Jean Harrison Clements of Loudoun County, the only judge from Northern Virginia on the 11-seat appeals court.

David Bernhard, a member of the Hispanic Bar Association, said that when a candidate with Levay's qualifications emerges -- with unanimous endorsement from nine bar organizations -- "then the time has come to tell Hispanics in Virginia that they have a seat at the judicial table." Levay represents abused women for little or no fee, heads the Loudoun bar, and coaches youth soccer and baseball.

Levay, 47, declined to comment.

But Levay's appointment is not a sure thing. Also up for the appeals court slot are Loudoun Circuit Court Judge Burke F. McCahill, Arlington County Circuit Court Judge Joanne F. Alper, Prince William County Circuit Court Chief Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr., Halifax County Commonwealth's Attorney Kimberley Slaton White and Circuit Court Judge John E. Wetsel Jr., who represents several counties in northwestern Virginia.

White has said that her region has been unrepresented on the appeals court since 1983.

In addition to the lack of Hispanic or Asian judges on circuit and higher courts in Virginia, only one of the 244 district and juvenile court judges in the state is Hispanic -- Uley Norris Damiani of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court. She was appointed by an Alexandria court in the fall.

Michael Chang, president of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Virginia, said that the lack of Asian judges is partly attributable to the low but growing numbers of Asian lawyers in the state. "But as the population becomes more diverse," he said, "judges who are cognizant of how different citizens operate is a plus."