Bill Shmidheiser

Overview

Bill Shmidheiser specializes in complicated financial messes, including disputes among shareholders and partners in businesses, divorces, real estate disputes, and representation of creditors in foreclosures, difficult collections, bankruptcies and workouts. Bill has substantial trial experience as lead counsel in scores of commercial cases, both jury and non-jury trials.

Bill is the father of five children ages 35 to 43, and has ten grandchildren (!), ages newborn to 11. He plays "Old Fellow's Soccer" in a couple of rec leagues, and is an occasional rock climber.

Experience

• Tried cases in federal courts in Harrisonburg, Roanoke, Lynchburg, and Charlottesville, Virginia; in the Virginia state courts of the Counties of Albemarle, Arlington, Augusta, Clarke, Culpeper, Frederick, Greene, Highland, Loudoun, Madison, Montgomery, Orange, Page, Prince William, Roanoke, Rockbridge, Rockingham, Shenandoah, Spotsylvania, and Warren, and the Cities of Charlottesville, Fredericksburg, Lynchburg, Staunton, Waynesboro and Winchester; and federal bankruptcy courts in Alexandria, Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Lynchburg, Richmond and Roanoke, Virginia
• Admitted pro hac vice to try commercial cases in federal courts in Washington, D.C.; Philadelphia, PA; Greensboro, NC; Trenton, NJ; and state courts in Pensacola, FL; Bristol, TN and Moorefield, WV
• Represented over 40 different banks and other lenders in difficult collections involving bankruptcies, lender liability claims, collateral with significant legal issues, and just plain hard-to-collect-from people
• While he primarily represents creditors, Mr. Shmidheiser has also served as debtor’s counsel in dozens of successful Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases resulting in confirmed Plans of Reorganization, and drawing upon that experience has also represented debtors in dozens of successful out-of-court workouts with creditors
• Negotiated where possible and successfully litigated where necessary, dozens of hard-fought business disputes among business and property owners: brother v. brother; parents v. children; partner v. partner; husband v. wife; and every other variation of business, property and family relationships that may become entangled in complicated legal disputes
• Expertise in litigation involving complicated accounting, appraisal, and business valuation issues
• Conducted more than 200 foreclosure sales of every kind of property, including residences large and small, and businesses of every description, including auto dealerships, restaurants, factories, dairy, poultry, and cattle farms, a glass table top factory, a wood stove factory, a Tilapia fish farm, the second-largest vineyard in Virginia, a trucking terminal, and, in one never-to-be-forgotten case, a villa on five acres in Montego Bay, Jamaica

Admissions

• Virginia
• U.S. Supreme Court
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit
• U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
• U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
• U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Virginia

Recognitions

• AV Preeminent® Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell®
• Selected for inclusion in The Best Lawyers in America® (Copyright by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, SC)
  • Bankruptcy and Creditor-Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law, 2001 – 2021
  • Litigation – Bankruptcy, 2011 – 2021
• Named Best Lawyers® 2014, 2016 Charlottesville Bankruptcy and Creditor Debtor Rights / Insolvency and Reorganization Law “Lawyer of the Year.” (Copyright by Woodward/White, Inc., of Aiken, SC)
• Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference, Permanent Member
• Selected to “Legal Elite,” Virginia Business
  • Civil Litigation, 2020
  • Family / Domestic Relations, 2001 - 2006, 2008, 2010
  • Bankruptcy, 2007, 2011 – 2012
  • Bankruptcy/Creditors' Rights – 2014 - 2019
• Selected to “Virginia Super Lawyers,” Business Litigation, Super Lawyers, Thomson Reuters, 2013-2018

AV®, BV®, AV Preeminent® and BV Distinguished® are registered certification marks of Reed Elsevier Properties Inc., used under in accordance with the Martindale-Hubbell certification procedures, standards and policies.

Professional Involvement

• Virginia State Bar
• Virginia Bar Association
  • Executive Board
  • Bankruptcy Section (1988-1990)
• Harrisonburg-Rockingham Bar Association
  • President (2005)

News

December 3, 2020Fourteen Flora Pettit Lawyers Named “Legal Elite”

August 21, 2020Nine Flora Pettit Attorneys Named in the 2021 Edition of Best Lawyers in America®

December 3, 2019Fifteen Flora Pettit Attorneys Recognized in the 2019 “Legal Elite” Survey Conducted Annually by Virginia Business Magazine

October 31, 2019Bill Shmidheiser Honored by Blue Ridge Legal Services for Pro Bono Work

August 15, 2019Nine Flora Pettit Attorneys Named in the 2020 Edition of Best Lawyers in America ®

December 20, 2018Seven Lenhart Pettit Attorneys Named in 2018 “Legal Elite”

August 15, 2018Eleven Lenhart Pettit Attorneys Named in 2019 Edition of Best Lawyers in America®

May 11, 2018Eight Lenhart Pettit Attorneys Honored

December 4, 2017Rockingham Judge’s Order on Marital Assets Featured in Virginia Lawyer’s Weekly

December 1, 2017Lenhart Pettit Attorneys Named in 2017 “Legal Elite”

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