About W.
Ryan is the 2024 President of the Virginia Bar Association. He handles high-stakes litigation with a focus on complex business disputes, construction law, and maritime law. He also serves as local counsel in the Eastern District of Virginia in patent and other cases. He was managing partner from 2012 to 2020.Ryan’s experience includes state and federal jury trials, mediations, panel arbitrations, and appeals. His cases involve business conspiracies, technology disputes, government contracts, marine construction, maritime claims, indemnity claims, and injunctions, among others. Ryan successfully argued one of the seminal financial tracing cases in the Virginia Supreme Court and was co-counsel in one of the largest patent cases tried to jury verdict in Norfolk federal court.Ryan is listed in Best Lawyers in America® and has been selected a Virginia Legal Elite in four categories. He is a past President of the I’Anson-Hoffman American Inn of Court and a past Chair of the Construction & Public Contracts section of the Virginia Bar Association.
Ryan is the 2024 President of the Virginia Bar Association. He handles high-stakes litigation with a focus on complex business disputes, construction law, and maritime law. He also serves as local counsel in the Eastern District of Virginia in patent and other cases. He was managing partner from 2012 to 2020.
Ryan’s experience includes state and federal jury trials, mediations, panel arbitrations, and appeals. His cases involve business conspiracies, technology disputes, government contracts, marine construction, maritime claims, indemnity claims, and injunctions, among others. Ryan successfully argued one of the seminal financial tracing cases in the Virginia Supreme Court and was co-counsel in one of the largest patent cases tried to jury verdict in Norfolk federal court.
Ryan is listed in Best Lawyers in America® and has been selected a Virginia Legal Elite in four categories. He is a past President of the I’Anson-Hoffman American Inn of Court and a past Chair of the Construction & Public Contracts section of the Virginia Bar Association.
Practice Areas
Education
Professional Affiliations
Awards & Recognition
- Lawyer of the Year: Construction Law, Norfolk (2025)
- Lawyer of the Year: Litigation - Construction, Norfolk (2025)
- Lawyer of the Year: Litigation - Construction, Norfolk (2023)
- Lawyer of the Year: Construction Law, Norfolk (2022)
- Recognized: Admiralty and Maritime Law
- Recognized: Commercial Litigation
- Recognized: Construction Law
- Recognized: Litigation - Construction
- Practice Area: Appellate Practice
- Practice Area: Arbitration
- Practice Area: Bet-the-Company Litigation
- Practice Area: Franchise Law
- Practice Area: Government Contracts
- Practice Area: Litigation - Intellectual Property
- Practice Area: Litigation - Real Estate
- Practice Area: Mediation
- Practice Area: Railroad Law
- Practice Area: Technology Law
- Practice Area: Transportation Law
- Special Focus: Commercial Litigation
- AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating by LexisNexis Martindale-Hubbell