Lawyers / Professionals

Mr. Spahn graduated magna cum laude from Yale University and received his J.D. from Yale Law School. He has practiced as a commercial litigator with McGuireWoods since graduating from Yale. He has tried cases involving such disparate matters as damage to James Madison's birthplace, the experimental nature of autologous bone marrow transplants for treating breast cancer, and easement rights over America's most popular walking and biking path.

He has represented, among other clients: a Central Asian government in proceedings before a Special Court of Inquiry in New Delhi, India investigating the deadliest mid-air collision in aviation history; an automobile manufacturer in connection with America's worst drunk driving accident; a Fortune 500 Company sued in an Alabama class action involving the redemption of non-refundable debentures; and an equipment manufacturer in depositions in Belfast, Northern Ireland. In March, 2009, Tom was invited to Reykjavik, Iceland, to discuss an ethics issue on Iceland's leading news and interview show.

Mr. Spahn regularly advises a number of Fortune 500 companies on such issues as properly creating and preserving the attorney-client privilege and work product protections when conducting corporate investigations, when hiring outside consultants, when dealing with the government, and during other daily and extraordinary situations. He has assisted in creating and defending privilege logs in many product liability and commercial litigation matters. He also advises in-house counsel on ethics issues, including conflicts of interest, confidentiality, dealing with corporate wrongdoing, and compliance with Sarbanes-Oxley requirements.

Mr. Spahn has written and lectured widely on such topics as ethics, professionalism, attorney client privilege, work product doctrine, defamation, and legal writing. Tom has written several editions of a book on the attorney-client privilege and the work product doctrine. The latest version is 750 pages long, and is accompanied by a 3,000 page compilation of approximately 19,000 case summaries (all of which Tom prepared). Tom has also written a book on Virginia defamation law – which is now in electronic format; a book on ethics issues facing Virginia in-house lawyers; two other book chapters; and over 70 articles in Virginia and national publications. The ABA's General Practice Section honored Mr. Spahn's article on Litigation Ethics in the Modern Age as one of the "Best Articles Published by the ABA" in 2004.

Since 1988, Mr. Spahn has spoken at more than 850 CLE programs throughout the United States, and in several foreign countries. After personally reading, summarizing, and categorizing over 1,600 Virginia Bar Legal Ethics Opinions, he made his work available to the public online (see Legal Ethics Opinion Summaries).

Mr. Spahn has served on the ABA Standing Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility; as the Reporter for the Committee that drafted Virginia's ethics Rules; as a member of the Virginia State Bar's Standing Committee on Legal Ethics; as Chairman of the Virginia Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee; as Chairman of the Virginia Bar Association's Professionalism Task Force; on the Committee that revised Virginia's lawyer discipline rules; on the Virginia Bar's Task Force on Emergency Legal Services; and on the faculty for the Professionalism Course that all new Virginia lawyers attend. He currently serves as Chairman of the Virginia Bar Association Commission on Professionalism, and serves on the Virginia Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee.

As Chairman of the Virginia State Bar Committee on Publications/Public Information, Mr. Spahn led that Committee in developing public service announcements articulating lawyers' benefit to society – which were extensively published in Virginia, and purchased by several other state bars and the Canadian Bar Association. As Chairman of the Virginia Bar Association Commission on Professionalism, he acted as principal drafter of Principles of Professionalism that have been endorsed by the Virginia Supreme Court and the Virginia Attorney General's Office, and commended by both of Virginia's federal district courts.

Mr. Spahn has received the Virginia Law Foundation's highest award for Continuing Legal Education efforts; a special commendation from the Virginia State Bar "in recognition of his outstanding service to the Bar"; the Virginia Bar Association's Walker Award of Merit "in recognition and appreciation of exceptional leadership within the bar"; the Virginia Bar Association's William B. Spong, Jr. Professionalism Award; and received one of only 15 awards given to lawyers from the country's 500 largest law firms by the Burton Foundation, which is dedicated to "refining and enriching legal writing by lawyers and law school students."

In 2008, Virginia Lawyers Weekly honored Mr. Spahn as one of Virginia's "Leaders in the Law 2008." Mr. Spahn was selected as one of the "Best Lawyers in America," Woodward/White, Inc.: 2006 - 2011 (Commercial Litigation); was named as one of Virginia's "Legal Elite," by Virginia Business: 2000 (Litigation), 2003 (Civil Litigation), 2004 - 2005 (Legal Services/Public Service), 2006 (Civil Litigation), 2008 (Civil Litigation); was selected as a Virginia "Super Lawyer," Law & Politics: 2006 - 2010 (Business Litigation); and as a Washington, D.C. "Super Lawyer," Law & Politics: 2007 - 2010 (Business Litigation).

He is a Fellow of both the Virginia Law Foundation and the American Bar Foundation (whose membership is limited to one-third of one percent of America's lawyers).