Rudy Austin Receives Roanoke Bar Association Lifetime Achievement Award

J. Rudy Austin

The Virginia law firm of Gentry Locke has announced that Roanoke Retired Partner J. Rudy Austin has been selected as the 2018 recipient of the Roanoke Bar Association (RBA) Frank W. “Bo” Rogers, Jr., Lifetime Achievement Award. Austin will be formally presented with the award at the RBA Law Day Luncheon on May 1.

“This is a tremendous honor that recognizes Rudy’s remarkable career, and sustained contributions to the profession and the bar,” said Gentry Locke Managing Partner Monica Taylor Monday. “Rudy is a model lawyer who has upheld the highest ideals of the profession. We have been fortunate Rudy is the fourth Gentry Locke attorney to receive this recognition. Those who preceded him in earning this distinction include: Senior Counsel S.D. Roberts Moore in 2016, the late Richard C. (Dick) Rakes in 2013, and Senior Counsel William R. (Bill) Rakes in 2010.”

The Frank W. “Bo” Rogers, Jr., Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to an outstanding lawyer who embodies the highest tradition of personal and professional excellence in Southwest Virginia and, in doing so, enhances the image and esteem of attorneys in the region. Rogers was an early member of the RBA and practiced law in Roanoke for more than 50 years.

Austin has been a leader of the Virginia bar, serving as president of the Roanoke Bar Association and the Virginia Association of Defense Attorneys, and as chair of the Sixth District Ethics Committee and the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board.

In 2007, he received the Virginia Association of Defense Attorney’s (VADA) highest honor – the Award for Excellence in Civil Litigation. He is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, the American Bar Foundation, and the Virginia Law Foundation. He was also an Emeritus Master of the Bench in the Ted Dalton American Inn of Court.

Austin recently retired from his position as a senior litigation partner at Gentry Locke. In a career that began in 1967, Austin’s experience included the practice areas of insurance defense, insurance coverage, workers’ compensation, construction, and legal ethics.

During his 50 years with Gentry Locke, Austin was consistently recognized by Best Lawyers in America for Personal Injury Litigation – Defendants.

He also has been one of a select group of lawyers recognized by Chambers USA for Virginia Litigation: General Commercial, was noted as a Litigation Star in General Commercial and Insurance Litigation by Benchmark Litigation, and was consistently noted by Virginia Super Lawyers for Civil Litigation and Defense.

Austin is highly esteemed as a virtual encyclopedia of legal knowledge who devoted thousands of hours to mentoring young lawyers at Gentry Locke. The example he sets is still the bedrock of the firm’s culture.

Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
2017 Claude D. Carter
2016 S. D. Roberts Moore
2015  William J. Lemon
2014 G. Marshall Mundy
2013 Richard C. Rakes
2012 George W. Wooten
2011 Henry L. Woodward
2010 William R. Rakes
2009 Robert E. Glenn
2008 William B. Poff
2007 William B. Hopkins, Sr.
2006 T. L. Plunkett, Jr.

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