State Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham County, has found himself at odds with his local bar association after he nominated former House of Delegates Speaker Todd Gilbert for a newly created judgeship in the 26th Judicial District, without the bar’s input.
Obenshain, a lawyer, did not provide the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Bar Association with advance notification of Gilbert’s nomination, as is tradition, according to the bar.
He also did not notify the bar that a new judgeship had been created in the district, according to a March 12 letter, recently obtained by Cardinal News, from the association to members of the General Assembly’s courts of justice committees and members who represent the 26th Judicial District.
The district includes Clarke, Frederick, Rockingham, Page, Shenandoah and Warren counties and the cities of Harrisonburg and Winchester.
Local bar associations typically provide input to the General Assembly regarding judicial nominees, ahead of a nominee’s interview by the legislature’s joint courts committee.
“You can imagine the surprise, then, when members learned that not only is the 26th looking at a new seat, but indeed a single candidate has already been interviewed for the position — before the seat has even been approved in the budget, no less,” wrote Nicole Faut, president of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Bar Association, in the March 12 letter to Obenshain.
In a letter back to the association the next day, Obenshain pointed out that he has notified the bar of bench vacancies for many years as a courtesy, not a requirement. He added that the additional judgeship in the 26th Judicial District was not unexpected.
Gilbert, a Republican, was interviewed March 6 by the joint committee for the open 26th District judgeship, after the position was created following a request from the Virginia Supreme Court to help alleviate some of the workload of the five judges of the general district court.
“Procedurally, the selection for this seat, if it is approved, is essentially a forgone conclusion,” Faut continued in the letter.
Gilbert was elected to the judgeship by the General Assembly in unanimous votes at the end of the 2026 regular session. He had been appointed U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia in July 2025, but resigned after an alleged disagreement with President Donald Trump over personnel in the office.
The creation of the judgeship had been certified by the Committee on District Courts and the Judicial Council of Virginia and was publicized in an article in Virginia Lawyers Weekly, a statewide trade publication, on Feb. 19, Obenshain said in an interview.
He had introduced SB 780 to create the additional judgeship in the 26th District in late January. That bill was incorporated into SB 158, carried by Sen. Russet Perry, D-Loudon County, in early February. Perry’s bill initially created an additional judgeship in the 20th Judicial District, but was amended to include the 12th, 15th, 26th and 27th judicial districts.
“It should not have been a surprise to anybody paying attention,” Obenshain said.
Normal procedure was flouted, according to the bar association
In her letter, Faut pointed out that local bar associations, including hers, have robust nomination and qualification procedures to provide the General Assembly with “invaluable input during their judicial selection process.” She added that those procedures, while not mandatory, have been “respected for decades, because there are few other mechanisms that capture input from those who are [in the] best situation to assess a candidate’s professional reputation and ability and who understand their community’s legal landscape and needs.”
“The way this new seat in the 26th judicial District is making its way into our community is in stark contrast to the procedure[s] that have historically been followed, and this has generated hard feelings and grave concern among our members that the General Assembly’s prerogative is to disregard our voices,” Faut wrote.
Faut closed out the letter with two requests. She asked that traditional procedure be followed going forward — that the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Bar Association be notified of judicial vacancies or new judgeships in the 26th District at the “earliest practicable time” — and that members provide the bar with “reasonable opporptunity” to alert potential candidates and evaluate candidates for the judgeship, so that the bar’s recommendations can be submitted to the General Assembly before committee interviews take place.
Faut declined to comment for this story.
Obenshain said in an interview that he often sends memos to all of the local bar associations to make them aware of judgeships that are vacant or soon-to-be vacant, or have been created. But in the case of the newly added 26th District seat this year or a vacancy in the district in 2025, he did not.
“I didn’t hear a peep about that last year,” he said.
Judge Louis Nagy was nominated by Obenshain and elected to a retirement-related vacancy in the 26th District in 2025. Nagy had been vetted by the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Bar Association earlier that year for a potential judgeship to the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court bench, prior to his nomination and election to the general district court.
“I send [the memo] when I’m able to, just as a courtesy. Not because it’s something that’s my job to do, I just value the input of all of our bars,” Obenshain said. “In the course of the General Assembly session, sometimes events overtake me and I forget.”
He added that local bar associations across the circuit have never had an issue reaching out to him with questions, concerns or opinions regarding judgeships. He said the letter from Faut was the only feedback he received regarding his work to fill the newly created judgeship in the 26th District.
“I haven’t heard any objections as to the choice. Frankly, the selection of Todd Gilbert has been extremely well received,” Obenshain said. “When Judge-elect Gilbert was nominated, he received broad support in the legislature. Members of both parties on both sides who had worked with him for 20 years were very generous in their expressions of support.”
Gilbert was elected to the judgeship through a series of unanimous votes, first in the joint courts committee and then on the House and Senate floors. He had been a member of the General Assembly for nearly 20 years and worked as a state prosecutor for about 15 years in a handful of different commonwealth’s attorneys offices. He was appointed U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia in July but resigned just over a month later.
Gilbert is slated to begin his new role as judge in the 26th Judicial District on July 1. He declined to comment for this story.
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Clarification 10 a.m. April 3: This story has been updated to clarify the origins of the legislation that created the additional judgeship.
