Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr.

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Leroy Rountree Hassell, Sr. (born 1955, Norfolk, Virginia) is the first African American chief justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, currently completing his second four-year term in that office. Chief Justice Hassell is the most senior member of the Court, although his position as Chief Justice is the result of election by the Justices, and not seniority, as was previously the case prior to a change in the law. A 1973 graduate of Norview High School of Norfolk, Virginia, where he was voted 'most likely to succeed'. Hassell also served as chairman of the Richmond School Board. He currently serves on the Board of Visitors of the Regent University School of Law.^[1]

Gov. Gerald L. Baliles appointed him to the Supreme Court in 1989. Hassell succeeded Justice John Charles Thomas, the first black to serve on the court, when Thomas resigned for health reasons after 6½ years as a justice.

[edit] Notes and references

• article on Hassell