To maintain the lifestyle alive, Robert de Treville Lawrence IV joined the ROTC at some stage in his 2nd yr at the University of Virginia in 1964. But Mr. Lawrence twice failed physicals because of imaginative and prescient and hearing “deficits,” dashing his defense force goals.
“That’s after I determined to visit the law school,” he stated, laughing. “I didn’t know what else I was going to do.”
Mr. Lawrence this yr marked his 50th anniversary as a lawyer in Warrenton.
After graduating from the University of Georgia’s regulation college in 1969, he joined the company of Richards & Richards, where he “did a little little bit of the entirety.” Then then, five years later, he started a one-person firm of his personal.
In 1977, Mr. Lawrence and a 1/2-dozen other local legal professionals hooked up Martin Walker Lawrence PC. Today, the 31 Winchester St. Firm — renamed Walker Jones — has 11 lawyers and 15 help groups.
When he began, real estate paintings comprised a huge part of Fauquier regulation practices.
But, the brand new regulation workplace allowed Mr. Lawrence, seventy-four, to the cognizance of estate planning, trust management, and associated assets law areas, consisting of land name paintings.
Entangled land divisions fascinate him.
“I like fixing things — boundaries, driveways, titles,” he stated in an interview Friday. “I’ve been inside the data room (of the Fauquier County Circuit Court) the final days, running to set up a driveway” to a purchaser’s lot close to Catlett.
He delights within the chase — tracking deed after deed after deed — determined to piece stories collectively to show and resolve the gnarliest of actual property transactions.
“You’re mining what’s in the land information,” Mr. Lawrence defined, almost gleefully. “I find it irresistible. They say whilst a lawyer goes to hell, he searches titles. But, there’s numerous thrilling stuff in that information room.”
Though he no longer litigates, the South Carolina native appreciated the court properly sufficient.
Before the nation created the general public defender’s office, courts appointed lawyers to symbolize impoverished criminal defendants.
“I had homicide trials — a man who killed his father with (the blunt end of) a hatchet and a female who cut her husband in the shoulder, and he bled to death,” Mr. Lawrence recalled.
The legal professional additionally defended a man worried in a “farm animals rustling” ring who had determined to cooperate with investigators.
“I consider riding up Culpeper Street and seeing him taking walks down the street,” Mr. Lawrence stated. “I pulled over and stated, ‘Get in the automobile. What are you doing? You’re presupposed to be in prison.”
The client assured him he had permission to go away to the county jail, Mr. Lawrence said.
Astounded, the attorney replied: “ ‘How could or not it’s all right? You’re presupposed to be in jail till we have this resolved.”
The defendant stated the jailer had launched him to “visit the dentist,” Mr. Lawrence said. “He changed into just wandering down the sidewalk.”
He delivered:
“I can’t consider whatever I’ve executed that’s been stupid.”
Present and previous colleagues and clients sing his praises.
Mr. Lawrence hired Office Manager Lora Goff 40 years in the past.
“He’s a wonderful instructor of the regulation,” Ms. Goff said. “He’s a Southern gentleman. I don’t assume I’ve ever visible him angry. On the contrary, he treats all and sundry with admire — whoever comes thru the front door.”
Powell Duggan joined the company 39 years ago.
“Bob certainly has a keen criminal mind,” said Mr. Duggan, sixty-six. “He’s constantly inquisitive and appears at all facets of things at innovative angles.”
The former Warrenton mayor and councilman introduced: “It’s true to have him right here. It’s true his years right here will keep beyond 50; he has no plans for retirement right now.”
Retired Fauquier County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge Jonathan S. Lynn helped launch the firm.
“Bob’s a super lawyer,” said Mr. Lynn, 70. “A lot of (name paintings) is spending time searching statistics, determining who all of the heirs are and monitoring them all the way down to recognize where they are.
“It’s a completely complex region of the law, and Bob becomes simply very, very thorough and very committed to it.”
If any of the firm’s lawyers had a query approximately land-partition law, for instance, they went to him, Mr. Lynn said.
“He knew it back and forth.”
Years ago, Mr. Lawrence helped “store” her mom’s domestic, said Demetris Carter, who lives near Hume.
“I can’t say sufficient precise stuff approximately him,” said Ms. Carter, sixty-two. “I adore him. He took the time to explain everything to me. I didn’t sense rushed . . . . I suppose he walks on water.
“Some attorneys are shysters. But, I can’t say that approximately attorney Lawrence.”
Mr. Lawrence constantly had to go back to Fauquier after earning a regulation diploma from the University of Georgia.
“I knew I wanted to be here,” he recalled with a smile. “Blair (his future spouse) and I were getting extreme.” They married in 1969.
Deep’s roots close to The Plains on his mom’s family’s facet also added him to Fauquier.
He determined that the size and pace of Warrenton and Fauquier ideal him.
“I’ve come to examine that I like humans,” Mr. Lawrence stated. “And when you’re a rustic legal professional in a small town, you spot quite a few humans.”
For nearly 35 years, the Lawrences have lived on Winchester Street, a quick distance from his workplace. Instead, he walks to paintings and eats lunch at home.
Always nicely became out, he credits Mrs. Lawrence, seventy-three, for his natty look.
“I dress two times each morning,” he said, grinning. “I come down; then I need to cross back and do it properly. She works tough at it.”
He affectionately refers to Mrs. Lawrence as “management.”
When he grew to become 40, he commenced wearing bow ties to work each day.
“My proper buddy Henry Baxley gave me a bowtie and confirmed me how to tie it,” stated Mr. Lawrence, who owns about 60 of them. “That year, I started out capturing left-surpassed and ingesting white whiskey. That became a momentous summer season. You flip forty; matters are specific.”
He additionally often sports a brimmed hat to protect the solar however also because “my grandfather wore hats, and I just assume it’s the right issue to do.”
Mr. Lawrence has demonstrated as fine a chum as a legal professional, Mr. Lynn stated.
“If I turned into in want of something and collected the telephone to call Bob, I don’t have any doubt if he should assist me out, he could assist me out,” the retired choose stated.
Mr. Duggan agreed.
“He’s any person you always anticipate. So I’ve continually felt he can be there, in case you want something.”
He will continue to paint. See you later as it remains “a laugh,” and his fitness holds up, Mr. Lawrence said.
“Life’s about displaying up,” he said of his lengthy profession. “You get up in the morning, and you face the day. And the subsequent component you already know 50 years has gone via.”
