Judges continuing family tradition on local courts
Jeremy M. Lazarus | 2/22/2019, 6 a.m.
Judge Randall G. Johnson Jr. is going to become a circuit court judge like his late father.
And Brice E. Lambert also is headed to the bench where he will continue a family tradition of judicial service.
Both are among the judges the General Assembly elected Feb. 14 to fill vacancies.
Judge Johnson, currently chief judge of the Henrico County Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court where he has served since 2012, will move to a seat on the Henrico Circuit Court on July 1.
His late father, Judge Randall G. Johnson, was a respected circuit court judge in Richmond before his death in August 2006.
Mr. Lambert was elected to the Richmond Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court and is to start on July 1 as well. He will serve in the same court in which his late father, Leonard W. Lambert Sr., made history in1973 with his appointment as a substitute judge.
At the time, Leonard Lambert was the first African-American judge in Richmond, though he spent most of his legal career representing clients in his private law practice before his death in November 2015.
His daughter, Linda Y. Lambert, is currently a substitute judge for the city’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.
She and her brother have continued their father’s legal legacy through their practices at the Lambert & Associates law firm on North 23rd Street in Church Hill. — JEREMY M. LAZARUS
