ROANOKE, Va. - LeClairRyan's Leah S. Gissy was recognized as the Roanoke Bar Association's Young Lawyer of the Year at the Roanoke Bar Foundation Gala & Law Day Celebration held at the Hotel Roanoke and Conference Center on May 21. An associate at LeClairRyan since 2007, Gissy focuses her practice on the defense of physicians, hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare providers in medical malpractice claims.
Each year, the Roanoke Bar Association recognizes an outstanding young lawyer who has demonstrated dedicated service to the community and to the legal profession. For the purposes of this award, a young lawyer is defined as an attorney age 36 or under, or admitted to practice three years or less.
Gissy is the Chair of the Young Lawyers Committee and a member of the Board of the Roanoke Bar Association. She is also a member of the Virginia State Bar Association, Defense Research Institute, Virginia Association for Defense Attorneys and the Virginia Women Attorneys Association. Additionally, Gissy was a Burks Scholar Teaching Fellow at Washington & Lee University School of Law. She is a graduate of West Virginia University and Washington & Lee University School of Law. Gissy is admitted to practice in Virginia.
Gissy is the second LeClairRyan attorney to receive this honor. In 2006, Lori D. Thompson was named as the Young Lawyer of the Year by the Roanoke Bar Association.