April 20, 2022
Michael L. Rigsby Sr. to Receive the 2022 Tradition of Excellence Award
Michael L. Rigsby Sr. will posthumously receive the 2022 Tradition of Excellence Award from the Virginia State Bar’s General Practice Section.
The Tradition of Excellence award recognizes a lawyer who embodies the highest tradition of personal and professional excellence and who has benefitted the community and enhanced the esteem of general practice attorneys in Virginia. It will be presented on June 17 during the VSB Annual Meeting at Virginia Beach.
Rigsby worked as a government attorney and was Bar Counsel for the Virginia State Bar from 1978 to 1997, before he entered private practice and later established his own law firm in the ensuing 20 years.
Born in Richmond in 1945, Rigsby graduated from Virginia Tech before receiving his law degree from the University of Richmond School of Law, where he later served as an adjunct law professor.
He was known for his gentle and courteous manners as well as his propensity for wearing self-tied bow ties to court and tipping his hat to passersby.
In nominating Rigsby for the award, James J. Knicely of the Knicely Law Firm in Williamsburg noted: “For me, Michael was one of those colleagues in the Bar that we know from afar, whose persona emanates professionalism, integrity, and genuineness, whether at Bar events, in writings, or in manifested character.”
Rigsby was a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation, honoring those lawyers and judges who demonstrate the highest standards of integrity and character and are deemed to be outstanding in their profession and in their community. He was also a member and past president of the National Association of Bar Counsel, a member of the John Marshall Inns of Court, and of the Virginia Bar Association.
He is survived by his wife of 58 years, Linda Flory Rigsby, as well as his daughter, Elisabeth Ann Rigsby, and son, Michael Lewis Rigsby Jr.