Virginia Bar Association President Kimberlee Harris Ramsey was named the “Leader of the Year” for 2025 at Virginia Lawyers Weekly’s annual “Leaders in the Law” celebration Nov. 30.

Started by VLW in 2006, the Leaders in the Law program honors lawyers in Virginia who are improving the legal profession and the law, increasing access to justice and setting the example for other lawyers.

The Leaders in the Law celebration is held in conjunction with another VLW awards program, “Up and Coming Lawyers,” which honors noteworthy attorneys in their first 10 years of practice.

The evening traditionally concludes with announcement of the results of a secret vote by the members of the year’s Leaders class to honor one of their own as Leader of the Year.

At the end of the ceremony last week at the John Marshall Ballrooms in downtown Richmond, Ramsey was announced as the winner of the LOY award.

In her remarks to the crowd, Ramsey said, “I am so honored to be part of such a prestigious group. The bios we heard tonight were nothing short of amazing.

“Honestly, though, I am not surprised because I believe the lawyers in Virginia are among the best in the country,” she said.

Ramsey continued, “Something we talk a lot about at the VBA is ‘the Virginia citizen-lawyer.’

“It is my opinion that lawyers must first be good citizens to be good lawyers and leaders,” she said.

She thanked her partners at her firm, FloranceGordonBrown in Richmond, where she has worked her entire career. When she started practice, she said, the older partners encouraged her to work outside the firm in the community and in the bar.

“Lessons I have learned through these pursuits have been invaluable,” Ramsey said.

She was one of three current VBA leaders in the Leaders Class of 2025. The other two are Jack Robb, chair of the Law Practice Management Division, and Kyle Wingfield, chair of the VBA’s Taxation Section.

Ramsey joins a distinguished group of previous Leaders of the Year, including two U.S. District judges, Robert E. Payne and James R. Spencer; former VBA president Lucia Anna “Pia” Trigiani; former Virginia State Bar president Irving M. Blank; John B. McCammon, founder of The McCammon Group; and Claire Guthrie Gastanaga, former executive director of the ACLU of Virginia.

-- Paul Fletcher