Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 17, 1990 TAG: 9005170595
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A/1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: ROB EURE POLITICAL WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The first member of his family to go to college, Wilson spent two years at Ferrum College. His record was strong enough for him to transfer to the University of Richmond. Wilson went on to earn a law degree at Wake Forest University with marks high enough that he interviewed with some big national firms, including several on Wall Street.
But to become a good trial lawyer, Wilson thought he needed experience as a prosecutor, which brought the Norfolk native to Roanoke as an assistant commonwealth's attorney. He served here as an assistant U.S. District Attorney and a federal magistrate and became a partner in the valley's largest law firm.
In the next few weeks, Wilson, 40, will be sworn in as a U.S. District Court judge in the Western Virginia district, becoming one of the youngest members of the federal judiciary in the country.
None of this seems to overwhelm Wilson, whose resume contains experience classic for his new job as a federal trial judge. In fact, the greatest challenge Wilson expects of his new job is to keep it from going to his head.
"You don't want to ever become isolated," Wilson said. "There's no reason a judge should set himself separate and apart from the community, the church and the people around you.
"A judge who believes the deference and nice things that lawyers show him is a lost soul," Wilson said. "I think it's important to keep your bearings as to who you are and the role you play in democracy."
Wilson said he was not counting on the judgeship. As the Senate voted to confirm his nomination Friday, Wilson was meeting with colleagues in the criminal law section of the Virginia State Bar who elected him chairman of the group that day.
It is a job he will now resign as he wraps up his practice at the Roanoke firm of Woods, Rogers and Hazlegrove.
Although he is young, Wilson is ready for the job, say lawyers who have worked with and watched him in his 16 years in law.
"He is a success story," said Roanoke lawyer Jonathan Rogers, who was trained by Wilson in the Roanoke commonwealth's attorney office. "He's a very intense, on-task, reliable person, and as hard-nosed a prosecutor as we had in that office."
Paul Thompson, who hired Wilson as an assistant U.S. attorney, said he stood out "among some really excellent young trial lawyers in that office."
Thompson, now chief of criminal enforcement with the Environmental Protection Agency, said Wilson "obviously impressed [U.S. District Court] Judge James Turk, because he hired him away within a year to be the magistrate."
Clifford Weckstein, now a Roanoke Circuit Court judge, remembers Wilson's first case in Roanoke. Defending a client charged with robbery and malicious wounding, Weckstein did battle with Commonwealth's Attorney Robert Rider and his new assistant, Wilson.
"He was intense and intelligent," Weckstein said of Wilson. "But he wasn't a bulldog then." That came soon after, Weckstein said.
The defendant was found not guilty of robbery and was convicted of unlawful wounding.
Wilson and Weckstein became close friends. "For a lawyer of any age, Sam is extraordinarily well qualified by experience, background and innate ability to make the sorts of decisions federal judges make," Weckstein said. "Though not quite 41, he has more experience in complex sorts of federal litigation than most lawyers of any age."
The strong work ethic is a trait Wilson said he learned from his father, who sold insurance in Norfolk door to door.
"My father always believed hard work will pay off in the long run. He was a guiding influence," Wilson said.
Because his father could not afford college, Wilson said, "he has measured his success by my success in life. But I can tell you he has always been a success in my eyes. I'm very, very proud of my father."
A fit man who came to his interview dressed in a classic dark lawyer suit and sipped a diet soft drink as he talked, Wilson said he is not sure when he developed the desire to become a judge.
"I always thought it would be a great experience to participate in government in some fashion. I'm not a politician and never will be."
Wilson's elevation to the bench ends a yearlong search for a judge in the Western District of the federal court, which covers Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, Roanoke, Danville, Abingdon and Big Stone Gap.
He replaces Judge Glen Williams of Lee County, who announced early last year he would take senior status, meaning he can take only those cases he chooses.
Wilson says he would be happy to live in Abingdon, but he said the decision on where he will sit rests with Turk, the senior judge in the district. Turk decides how the four judges in the district take cases based on the case load in the federal courts in the area.
Before his final approval from President George Bush on Monday, Wilson was scrutinized by U.S. Sen. John Warner, the Justice Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the American Bar Association and finally the Senate Judiciary Committee. But he said the process of being investigated was not unpleasant.
"Along the way, there was not one single litmus test. No one asked how do you stand on a particular constitutional issue," he said.
Wilson said he comes to the bench "with no agenda, other than to be fair."
An avid reader who is dedicated to daily exercise and frequent racquetball, Wilson is undaunted by the prospect of staying on the bench for life - the term of a federal judicial appointment.
"The rest of your life has a way of creeping up on you, according to my parents," he said. "This is just the beginning. To think of this as the accomplishment of my life is to forget that I have a big job to do and that job is not always going to be easy."
by CNB