Richmond Partner Receives the George H. Hettrick Leadership Award for Pro Bono Service

Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP is proud to announce partner Chip Nunley received the George H. Hettrick Leadership Award from the Greater Richmond Bar Foundation for his outstanding achievements in pro bono service on October 25, 2018.

Nunley is the current president and board member of Central Virginia Legal Aid and the secretary and board member at the Legal Aid Justice Center. He was appointed by the Supreme Court of Virginia as an inaugural member of its Access to Justice Commission in 2013, and he continues to serve in that capacity today. Further, Nunley serves as chair of the Virginia State Bar's Access to Justice Committee.

As early as 1991, Nunley helped institute the model pro bono housing and domestic law program of the Richmond Bar Association. This program became a template for other local bars across the nation and resulted in the Richmond Bar being awarded the prestigious Harrison Tweed Award by the American Bar Association and the National Legal Aid and Defender Association in 1991.

He has provided leadership and management of the firm's George H. Hettrick Church Hill pro bono office for the past seven years and he has taken more direct representation clients through the office than any lawyer at the firm. Nunley has represented more than 75 clients in their landlord/tenant disputes, assisted 24 victims of domestic violence in obtaining a protective order and has offered numerous consults to clients in the office. He has also represented families in their guardianship cases.

Nunley received the George Hettrick Award for all of this service but also because of the time he has dedicated to organizing the efforts of CVLAS, LAJC and Hunton Andrews Kurth to assist tenants at local apartment complexes in Richmond's Northside. The flats, with poor conditions that are regularly featured on local news, have a tenant population heavily skewed to the city's most vulnerable—and the issues with the apartment complex have been ignored or unnoticed by the landlord. Despite numerous complaints of unlivable conditions at the complex, the landlord regularly filed eviction cases. Nunley has appeared dozens of times in the Richmond General District Court for clients from the complex.

The George H. Hettrick Award was named after the firm's first pro bono partner who was responsible for building the firm's pro bono practice and culture. Chip has dedicated more than 5,000 hours to pro bono clients over the past decade. He served as Hunton Andrew Kurth's Richmond pro bono chair for six years and led the office to 100 percent participation in each of those years. The office dedicated more than 10,000 hours to pro bono during his time as chair.

About the Greater Richmond Bar Foundation
The Greater Richmond Bar Foundation serves the public and legal profession by supporting, facilitating and promoting the delivery of pro bono legal services through its signature Pro Bono Clearinghouse for nonprofits, through the groundbreaking JusticeServer project, through its workplace initiative the Pro Bono Promise, its partnership with Legal Aid in the Triage project and by involvement in law-related educational projects that encourage public understanding of, participation in and access to our justice system.