Location:
23462, Virginia Beach, Virginia
Phone: +1 (877) 271-2040
Firm: Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp
Any person in need of a personal injury lawyer has a tremendous number of choices, so an important question is - what makes me, Rick Shapiro, different or unique from other practitioners that would warrant a prospective client taking time out of their busy schedule to reach out for representation? Well, I believe my background, skills, and actual trial experience help set me apart from the competition. In September 2023, I was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted nationwide, I was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board, certifying civil trial attorneys across the U.S. I was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.. A relentless personal injury trial attorney, I was named a 2022 Leader in the Law by Virginia Lawyer’s Weekly. Successful American inventor & product designer (18 U.S. patents). Amazon best-selling thriller author. During my three-decade career, I have won personal injury client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the federal 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, underscoring my trial achievements. In addition, my law firm has won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million dollars. On the successful TN Supreme Court appeal, I worked tirelessly for seven years to achieve victory for our client. When you consider hiring your personal injury lawyer, reputation, integrity, and track record all matter.. While attending the University of Maryland at College Park, where I obtained a government and politics degree, I was lucky to get a job on Capitol Hill as an intern. I was then offered a full-time job as a staff assistant for a U.S. Congressman. Learning how legislation really gets rolling, along with interacting with constituents, was great training for later becoming a lawyer.. While I was working on Capitol Hill, I decided to apply to law school and try to become a lawyer. I was accepted to George Mason Law School located in Northern Virginia. I graduated in the top 5 percent of my class and wrote a law review article that was published in the George Mason Law Review. I also worked part-time but still managed to pile up student loans (which took forever to repay).. I also heard about how it was a great experience to obtain a clerkship for a federal judge, so I put out a bunch of applications and ended up becoming a law clerk to a federal judge in Norfolk Virginia, my hometown. I spent a year, with pay, as one of Federal Judge Robert Doumar’s law clerks and saw great (and some bad) trial lawyers in court in both civil and criminal cases every week. This was great training.By 1993, I was exclusively doing personal injury law. I am now licensed to practice in North Carolina, West Virginia, Virginia, and Washington, DC, but actually handle personal injury litigation in nearly every state across the eastern United States by associating with other attorneys licensed in those states. I also applied for and am now honored to be admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court.I have been involved in all kinds of personal injury and wrongful death trials, including car wreck cases, trucking cases, railroad injury and derailment, chemical and toxic spill cases, etc. In many instances, my seriously injured client’s case settles at or just before a jury trial, because if I do a good job for my client, the defendant pushes hard to settle their case rather than face a jury. I have also been an officer of the Railroad Section of the American Association of Justice, the largest nationwide civil trial injury lawyer network, and remain involved in the motor vehicle, trucking, and railroad sections. Since 2006, I have been writing and editing personal injury law blog articles on Legal Examiner, which is the largest injury law blog in the country. I focus on important safety issues in the Virginia Beach, Norfolk, and Northeast North Carolina regions. Over the years, I have lectured to other personal injury lawyers on a national basis, in Virginia, and in the state of Georgia. I have been asked by organizations to speak on topics of injury law as well as evidence law. One of the things that really motivates me as an injury lawyer is helping people who are clearly being taken advantage of by a corporation or by a claims adjuster. Believe me, I have lots of examples. I have had cases where a claims adjuster strings along an injured person, and then springs the statute of limitations defense on them after it is too late. On several occasions, I was able to figure out how to file the suit in a different state (with a longer statute) and “revive” my client's claim. On other occasions, I have had potential clients call me and tell me that another lawyer turned their case down. I’ve taken many cases that other lawyers have refused and later settled the cases for substantial sums of money for (grateful) clients. Doing a good job means thinking about your client's case not only when you're in the office, but when you're home on the weekend, surfing the Internet on some other topic, or even when taking a shower. My job does not have any defined hours.. Also, I am a prolific inventor. I hold 18 United States patents (the patents cover “fold flat” wagons, carts, jogging strollers, etc. ) and I was granted patents in South Africa and Australia. I signed license agreements with several companies, including Radio Flyer, which licensed my folding wagon handle patent. I believe I am one of the only injury lawyers in the US who invent/design products and actively practice injury law. It provides a unique perspective. Also, I am a published fiction author, having written a No. 1 Amazon bestseller, Taming the Telomeres, and the acclaimed follow-up, Targeting the Telomeres.I am proud of being a lawyer and especially proud of being a trial attorney. We have a framed poster in our law office reception area with the title: Where Would We Be Without Lawyers?” and it shows the nation’s “founding fathers” in an artist’s rendering with an empty silhouette for 35 of the famous faces--yes, 35 of the 55 framer’s of the Constitution were lawyers, and 25 of our nation’s presidents, including Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt, were lawyers. Part of my duty as an attorney is to stand between corporations, insurance companies, and government attempts to limit or wipe out the ultimate check and balance: the courthouse and our jury system. I am a strong believer in the US jury system as our system allows juries to decide important civil justice issues. The US jury system is vastly more important to our government system than most people realize and one of my roles is to see that the jury system is not eroded and that judges always recognize that most civil disputes should be resolved by juries if they can not be settled before trial.. Based in Virginia Beach, I am ready to serve clients throughout Hampton Roads -- Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Suffolk -- as well as the communities of Virginia's Eastern Shore and northeastern North Carolina.
