Andy Nea is the Pro Bono Partner at Williams Mullen, working to assist non-profits and individuals referred from various legal service organizations, including the GRBF Pro Bono Clearinghouse. Andy serves as counsel to Metro Richmond Habitat for Humanity and the Heart of Virginia Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
Andy was nominated for the 2013 Benjamin R. Lacy IV Pro Bono Clearinghouse Volunteer Award by several nonprofits clients he helped this year, including Hunter Country Day School, a classical, Christian school in Goochland Country and AmeriCorps VISTA, a service program designed to fight poverty.
Andy has helped more than 70 nonprofits since the opening of the Pro Bono Clearinghouse in 2001. In addition, Andy has created a traveling Wills Clinic program as a community outreach service for individuals served by nonprofit organizations, like Senior Connections, YWCA, and CARITAS. Through a partnership with GRBF, the attorneys are able to access malpractice insurance while volunteering.
At each Wills Clinic session, the clients are served by attorneys and law students to receive finalized simple wills, advanced medical directives and powers of attorney. Hundreds of individuals have benefited from this program. At CARITAS, the Wills Clinic has become an integral part of The Healing Place and CARITAS Works programs. The program director Tom Bannard shared this comment about Andy:
Andy’s turn key will’s clinic program has helped more than 70 CARITAS clients receive critical life planning documents, which they otherwise could not afford. Many of our clients are aware that their life style and addiction has left them in a place where a sudden death is not an unlikely scenario, and I have seen many clients relieved that with Andy’s help, they have been able to remove one more potential burden from their families. Always the picture of efficiency and professional, Andy has given our clients nothing but dignity and respect as he walks them through a difficult process.
In addition to the Wills Clinics and pro bono counsel to nonprofits, Andy is active in our community as he serves on the board of governors of Christchurch School, a private college preparatory school located in Middlesex County, Va. as well as on the Board of Governors of Church Schools in the Diocese of Virginia. Andy is also a member of the board of directors of the Greater Richmond Bar Foundation.
Among other professional recognition, Andy is the recipient of the Richmond Bar Association’s John C. Kenny Pro Bono Award for providing legal services to the poor and under-served.
Mr. Nea served as a visiting professor through the Center for International Studies at Belgorod State University in Belgorod, Russia, The University of National and World Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria, Mykolas Romeras University in Vilnius, Lithuania, The University of Kragujuces, Serbia and The University of Sarajevo in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The CILS program provides senior lawyers the opportunity to teach at universities in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Prior to becoming Pro Bono Partner, Andy was Past chairman of the Financial Services Practice Group at Williams Mullen. Mr. Nea concentrated his practice in the representation of both regulated and non-regulated lenders and served as counsel to the Virginia Association of Community Banks for over 25 years. Mr. Nea also has authored and edited a number of articles and publications dealing with finance, real estate, foreclosures, and creditors’ rights, including Secured Transactions under Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, Enforcement of Liens and Judgments and Real Estate Transactions in Virginia.