As you know, the 124th Annual Meeting of The Virginia Bar Association will be held at the Williamsburg Lodge and Conference Center from January 23-25, 2014. We're excited that the Annual Meeting will be held in collaboration with the Old Dominion Bar Association (ODBA).

Emmy-nominated actor, producer and director Tim Reid will bring a touch of Hollywood, and his personal Virginia history, as one of our featured panelists on Friday afternoon when the VBA Committee on Special Issues of National & State Importance focuses on the 60th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision.

In our Legacy Series Luncheon Presentation on Friday, "Savage Inequality: African-American Education before Brown v. Board of Education," William B. Obrochta, manager of educational services at the Virginia Historical Society, will discuss the evolution of Virginia's public education system up to the 1950s. Tim Reid's short film "Strike," about the 1951 walkout at R.R. Moton High School in Farmville that protested racial inequality, also will be shown.

At our Friday evening banquet, we will unveil the portrait of Virginia Supreme Court Justice Cleo E. Powell. We will also pay tribute at the banquet to Governors A. Linwood Holton, Jr. and L. Douglas Wilder by bestowing on them the Association's highest honor, the Gerald L. Baliles Distinguished Service Award. At our Saturday morning breakfast meeting, we will vote to install John L. Walker III of Richmond as the 126th president of The Virginia Bar Association.

If you haven't registered for the meeting, I hope you'll send in your registration today, or register online via the event webpage. Kathleen and I look forward to visiting with you in Williamsburg for what we hope and expect will be a fantastic meeting.