Darius Davenport, Director of Regent Law Career & Alumni Services (pictured R), was recently awarded the Norfolk Portsmouth Bar Association’s (NPBA) Walter E. Hoffman Community Service Award for his leadership in encouraging the legal community’s positive impact on Hampton Roads. Davenport was presented the award by NPBA president Gary Bryant (pictured L) at a special ceremony held on the campus of Regent University. Bryant is the head of the litigation practice at Wilcox & Savage, Norfolk, Va.
In 2009, Davenport launched Regent Law’s annual Community Service Day, a joint volunteer effort of Regent Law students, faculty, staff, and members of the local bar association providing non-legal services to non-profit organizations across Hampton Roads. The annual event coincides with incoming Regent Law students’ orientation activities.
Last August, 154 volunteers completed more than 600 hours of community service in one day at locations including Union Mission, Virginia Beach Habitat for Humanity, Food Bank of Southeastern Virginia, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and St. Mary's Home for Disabled Children. Previous years’ service days have included the Norfolk Law Library, Botanical Gardens, and Red Wing Park in Virginia Beach.
“We are incredibly proud of Darius and the work he has done benefiting the local community,” said Dean Jeffrey Brauch. “Regent Law’s Community Service Day has been a tremendous success. Non-profit organizations across Hampton Roads have benefited from these volunteer services, and, as a group, volunteers have performed close to 2,000 hours of community service since the beginning of the program.”
The NPBA distributes only two awards to its membership each year.
The Walter E. Hoffman Community Service Award recognizes outstanding hands-on service to the community by a member of the Bar Association who is under age 40. The award is named for the late jurist who served as a role model and mentor for lawyers in the Hampton Roads community. Of Hoffman’s many accomplishments and accolades, he was best known for the "rocket docket" administrative system that made the Eastern District of Virginia one of the most efficient federal courts in the country, and the Edward J. Devitt Award for Distinguished Service to Justice in 1984. In 1983, the federal courthouse in Norfolk, Va., was named in his honor.