NORFOLK, VA.  Vandeventer Black is pleased to announce that Partner, Michael L. Sterling has been named to the firm’s Executive Board.  The board is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the firm, and consists of five Partners.

Mike has also served as chair of the firm’s Practice Management Committee and is the former chair of the firm’s Construction and Public Contracts Department.  He concentrates his law practice in construction, public contracts and local government matters, as well as arbitration and mediation.

His construction practice has ranged from the resolution of complex disputes involving co-generation power plants, hospitals, ships, highways and commercial buildings to residential development projects. Mike has been recognized by Virginia Business magazine as one of Virginia’s Legal Elite in the areas of Construction law and Alternative Dispute Resolution. He has also been recognized as a Virginia Super Lawyer and as a Best Lawyer in Hampton Roads, Construction.  Mike is a graduate of Lawrence University of Wisconsin (Cum Laude) and the William and Mary School of Law (Order of the Coif).

Mike is a practitioner of Alternative Dispute Resolution.  He is an Arbitrator and Mediator for the American Arbitration Association and he previously served as a certified Virginia Circuit Court – Civil Mediator and as a Mediator Mentor, as well as a Better Business Bureau and a National Arbitration Forum Arbitrator. He also served as a Hearing Officer by appointment of the Supreme Court of Virginia, where he presided over public employee grievance appeals and professional licensure issues.  Mike currently focuses his mediation and arbitration skills in resolving complex construction, public contracts and business disputes.

Vandeventer Black lawyers have provided legal services to businesses nationally and internationally since 1883. The firm has offices in Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia; Kitty Hawk and Raleigh, North Carolina; Pasadena, California; and Hamburg, Germany.