March 13, 2025
Kevin E. Martingayle Receives Leadership in Education Award
Kevin E. Martingayle, the 2014-15 president of the Virginia State Bar and a founder of Bischoff Martingayle in Virginia Beach, has been named this year’s recipient of the William R. Rakes Leadership in Education Award by the Virginia State Bar Section on the Education of Lawyers in Virginia.
The Rakes award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated exceptional leadership and vision in improving legal education, and in advancing relationships and professionalism among members of the academy, the bench, and the bar within the legal profession in Virginia.
Despite a demanding trial and appellate practice, Martingayle has maintained an unswerving devotion to furthering the VSB’s mission of improving the legal profession while dedicating countless hours of his time to educating law students and lawyers through his work as an adjunct faculty member at William & Mary Law School and a dedicated teacher of the law school professionalism program, of which he currently serves as co-chair.
Martingayle was nominated by the Hon. Linda L. Bryant, judge of the General District Court of the City of Chesapeake, who wrote, “One of Mr. Martingayle’s outstanding qualities is his ability to build and lead a team of successful lawyers and judges who share his passion for education. He has successfully recruited other accomplished attorneys and judges to contribute their time and expertise towards teaching and mentoring bar members and law students. During many professionalism courses at law schools throughout Virginia, the faculty more than once look around and realize we have all been recruited to serve as faculty for the program by Mr. Martingayle.”
As VSB President, Martingayle presciently formed the VSB Study Committee on the Future of Law Practice, with the goal of staying ahead of the rapidly evolving changes technology was bringing not only to the practice of law but to the ways law schools were teaching and training future lawyers. That committee eventually combined with the Special Committee on Technology to form the VSB’s current Committee on Technology and the Future Practice of Law.
From 2014-16, Martingayle worked on the VSB Bench Bar Relations Committee for the VSB, and from 2015 to 2024 served on the Judicial Performance Evaluation Committee. From 2016 through 2022, Martingayle served on the VSB Education of Lawyers Committee, working as the chair from 2020–21. He currently serves as a member of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board.
In addition to volunteer work for the VSB, he has held leadership positions with the American Bar Association, National Conference of Bar Presidents, Virginia Judges and Lawyers Assistance Program, Virginia Trial Lawyers Association and Virginia Bar Association.
Throughout his busy career, Martingayle has rarely had a year when he was not also giving back to his profession. Wrote Judge Bryant, “Mr. Martingayle possesses that rare combination of dedication, commitment, talent, leadership, and team-building skills that make him a star worthy of this esteemed award.”
A prolific teacher, speaker, and counsel of record in more than 30 published appellate opinions, Martingayle graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Hampden-Sydney College before getting his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law.
Martingayle and his wife, Elisabeth, are active members of the Virginia Beach community, serving organizations including the SPCA, Virginia Beach Surf & Rescue Museum, Allen Stone Memorial Races, Navy Seal Foundation, and Virginia Beach Lifeguard Association.
Avid athletes, the Martingayles and their adult children, Harrison, Doria, and Jackson can often be found winning the Run in the Sun 5K at the Annual Meeting. The Rakes Award will be presented to Kevin Martingayle on June 13, 2025, at the VSB’s Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach..