Virginia & North Carolina Personal Injury Lawyer Co-Counsel | Lawyer Referrals | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

Are you seeking basic information or summaries of a personal injury, medical malpractice, or wrongful death case in Virginia or North Carolina, but aren’t licensed in VA or NC? Or, do you not specialize in personal injury law? If you answered yes to either, consider contacting our firm. We welcome co-counsel relationships and have successfully recovered millions of dollars through settlement and jury verdicts with co-counsel.

We are proud of our ongoing co-counsel relationships. In fact, our firm obtained a record-setting $60 million (with post-verdict interest) personal injury jury verdict in Virginia for a client, with co-counsel. The record-setting verdict was appealed to the Virginia Supreme Court by the defendant and was confidentially settled while the appeal was pending. The verdict was a direct result of combining the forces of two law firms with a united mission of helping our injured client.        

In addition to partnering with co-counsel, our firm publishes in-depth legal articles intended to help both prospective clients and lawyers unfamiliar with Virginia and North Carolina personal injury law. For example, firm partner Rick Shapiro published the following in-depth summaries of tort law that may be of use in your personal injury practice: 

Our 4-step process when working with co-counsel referrals

  • Step1: When we receive a potential referral, we discuss with the referring attorney the percentage of the co-counsel fee split to the referring lawyer or law firm, and agree on this at the beginning.  
  • Step 2: Either on a conference call or however the referring attorney wants to handle this, the client is apprised of the relationship of the referring lawyer and our law firm.  
  • Step 3: A fee agreement is provided to the client, which sets forth the respective attorney responsibilities and relationships. 
  • Step 4: At the time of resolution of the case, where the legal fee earned is set forth for the client on the settlement statement, the relationship between the referring law firm and our law firm is stated. 

Under each state’s professional responsibility rules, it is permissible to enter into a co-counsel contingent legal fee relationship, so long as the relationship is clearly spelled out to the client in writing. 

Depending upon the case, we are willing to advance the court costs and expert fees so long as this is the desired relationship with the referring lawyer or law firm and our law firm. 

Feedback from attorneys we’ve worked with in previous co-counsel endeavors

Joseph Miller, Personal Injury Lawyer in Mandeville, LA  Relationship with Rick Shapiro: Worked with Rick Shapiro on an F.E.L.A. case. “Rick Shapiro is one of the leading litigators in his region, if not the country. Rick’s firm associated with our firm in the New Orleans Metro Area to act as co-counsel in a Louisiana railroad injury case under F.E.L.A. The case went to trial in August of 2011 where I was able to observe Rick’s diligence and competence first hand, and the trial resulted in a verdict over 1.5 million dollars. Highly prepared, and always motivated to work his tail off for the client are the best way to describe Rick! I hope I can work with him again soon!”

Francis Hajek, Personal Injury Lawyer in Charlottesville, VA.  Relationship with Rick Shapiro: Fellow lawyer in the Virginia legal community “Rick and I have been friends and colleagues for 30 years. He always gives 100%. Recently, Rick obtained a multimillion dollar verdict in a railroad/FELA personal injury case involving occupational exposure to radioactive materials. He is very active in national trial lawyer organizations and has lectured other personal injury lawyers on trial practice and tactics.”

Stewart Greenberg, Personal Injury Lawyer in Miami, FL: “I have had the privilege of working with Shapiro & Appleto on a number of personal injury cases, I found their representation to be highly ethical and thorough. I highly recommend them if you are looking for high quality legal representation in the Virginia or North Carolina area.”

Michael Strong, Bankruptcy Attorney in Falls Church, VA .  Relationship with Randy Appleton: Fellow lawyer in the Virginia legal community  “Many years ago, when I worked in Tidewater as a young lawyer, Randy was known as an agressive but polite and friendly litigator. I can say that your case would be well taken care of by this knowledgeable attorney, whose reputation is excellent with the courts. Just the kind of attorney I would want if I were involed in an accident and was searching for a lawyer.”

Warren Kozak, Criminal Defense Attorney in Portsmouth, VA.  Relationship with Randy Appleton: Fellow lawyer in the Virginia legal community.  “I have known Randy since law school and my firm has referred several matters with good results. He was also co-counsel with my firm on a complex medical malpractice case. His knoweledge is expertise was invaluable.”

All of our attorneys have highly rated endorsements.