Cantor, Stoneburner, Ford, Grana & Buckner is a United States law firm based in Richmond, Virginia. The firm has 6 attorneys, 16 employees, and was founded in 2009.
The firm can trace its roots to July, 1979, when Irv Cantor and Tom Rilee, having just completed clerkships with the Virginia Supreme Court, started the law firm of Rilee and Cantor.
In 1981, Bruce Arkema and Steve Edmonds joined the firm, and the firm’s name changed to Rilee, Cantor, Arkema & Edmonds. Irv Cantor was in charge of the law firm’s personal injury litigation, handling primarily insurance defense work. In the mid 1980s, Mr. Cantor made the decision to handle exclusively plaintiff cases and discontinued his insurance defense practice.
The firm hired its first associate, Stanley K. Joynes, in the early 1980s. In 1987, Mr. Joynes and Rilee, Cantor, Arkema & Edmonds was appointed as counsel for the future claimants in the Dalkon Shield bankruptcy case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. The Dalkon Shield litigation went on for several years and was a landmark case in mass tort/bankruptcy law.
In 1991, after the break-up of the well known Richmond law firm of Browder, Russell, several of that firm’s trial lawyers joined Rilee, Cantor, Arkema & Edmonds, and the firm’s name changed to Rilee, Cantor and Russell. Among the lawyers who joined the firm was Aubrey Ford, who had been the head of the litigation section of Browder, Russell. The firm grew to almost 25 lawyers. However, after several years, all of the medical malpractice defense lawyers from Browder, Russell left the firm as the plaintiff personal injury practice, still headed by Mr. Cantor, continued to grow. The firm then changed its name to Cantor, Arkema. Shortly thereafter, Lewis Stoneburner, a veteran trial lawyer with substantial experience and success in plaintiff medical malpractice cases, joined the firm.
During the 90s and early 2000s, Cantor, Arkema had two distinct practice areas: a business group and a plaintiff litigation group. The plaintiff litigation group included, among others, Irv Cantor, Lewis Stoneburner, Aubrey Ford, Stephanie Grana, and Elliott Buckner. The lawyers in the plaintiff litigation group consistently achieved verdicts and settlements that were listed among the highest in Virginia and were voted into leadership roles in several state and national plaintiff’s trial bar associations, including the presidency of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, the Virginia Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, and the Metro Woman's Bar Association. Some of the significant cases handled by the group in the 90s included recoveries that were the largest ever recorded in the particular jurisdictions where the lawsuits were brought, including a 5.95 million dollar recovery in a medical malpractice case in a rural North Carolina county and a 4.5 million dollar recovery in a motor vehicle case in a rural Virginia county. In the early-2000s, the group achieved numerous other significant results, including a 5.6 million dollar verdict in a motor vehicle case, a 5 million dollar recovery in an industrial explosion case, a 5 million dollar recovery in a motorcycle accident case, and a 4.4 million dollar verdict in a medical malpractice case.
The lawyers were not the only members of the firm to achieve national recognition. In 2008, Lori Tracoma, who has been a personal injury assistant with the firm since the early 1980s, was named “The National Paralegal of the Year” by the American Association for Justice at the AAJ National Conference in Philadelphia.
In 2009, the plaintiff trial lawyers decided to form their own law firm, dedicated exclusively to serious plaintiff injury, malpractice and commercial cases. The newly organized firm was named Cantor, Stoneburner, Ford, Grana & Buckner, P.C.
All of the firm’s partners are listed in “Best Lawyers in America”, and the firm is listed as a top tier law firm in personal injury, medical malpractice, legal malpractice, and employment law by US News and World Report’s survey of “Best Law Firms in the United States”.
Irvin V. Cantor:
Best Lawyers in America "Richmond Personal Injury Litigation - Plaintiffs Lawyer of the Year" (2016, 2014)
Best Lawyers in America for Personal Injury and Medical Malpractice (2007–present)
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating for legal ability and ethical standards
American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell “Top Rated Lawyer” (2012)
"Virginia Super Lawyers," selected by Law & Politics, since 2006. Named "Top 10 Virginia Super Lawyers" (2012-2016), "Top 50 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2016, 2014, 2013), "Top 25 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2012), "Top 33 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2011), and "Top 50 Virginia Super Lawyers" (2011, 2009, 2006)
"Legal Elite," in the category of Civil Litigation, named by Virginia Business magazine
Recipient, 2010 Weinstock Award from the Brain Injury Association of Virginia
Honored as a “Leader in the Law” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly, for significant contributions to the legal profession and community at large (2010)
Stephanie E. Grana:
Virginia Law Foundation Fellow (2014)
MRWBA Women of Achievement Award (December 2012)
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating for legal ability and ethical standards, Bar Register of Preeminent Woman Lawyers™ (2011)
American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell “Top Rated Lawyer” (2012)
Best Lawyers in America, in the category of Medical Malpractice (2009–present)
Virginia Super Lawyers® “Rising Star” (2007-2009), selected by Law & Politics
"Top 50 Women Virginia Super Lawyers" (2012-2016)
"Top 25 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2012)
"Top 100 Virginia Super Lawyers" (2012-2016)
"Top 25 Women Virginia Super Lawyers" (2011, 2010)
”Top 50 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2016, 2015, 2014, 2012),
"Influential Women of the Year," selected by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (2010)
“Top 40 Under 40,” named by Style Weekly (2008)
ATLA’s National College of Advocacy, Advocate Status
Elliott M. Buckner:
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating for legal ability and ethical standards
American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell “Top Rated Lawyer” (2012)
Best Lawyers in America, in the category of Personal Injury Litigation (2011–present)
Virginia Super Lawyers® (2016-2012), selected by Law & Politics.
"Top 100 Virginia Super Lawyers" (2016, 2015, 2014, 2012)
"Top 50 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2016, 2015, 2014, 2012)
Virginia Super Lawyers “Rising Star” (2007-2011)
“Legal Elite - Civil Litigation,” Virginia Business magazine (2013, 2015)
“Legal Elite - Young Lawyer,” Virginia Business magazine (2005-2006, 2008, 2010)
American Bar Association National Appellate Advocacy Competition, Winner (2000)
M. Scott Bucci:
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating for legal ability and ethical standards
Best Lawyers in America - Personal Injury Litigation Plaintiffs, 2015, 2016
Virginia Super Lawyers, Top 50 in Richmond, Top 100 in Virignia, 2016
Virginia Super Lawyers, selected by Law & Politics, since 2009
Lewis Powell Inn of Court
Lewis T. Stoneburner:
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating for legal ability and ethical standards
American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell® “Top Rated Lawyer” (2012)
Best Lawyers in America® "Richmond Medical Malpractice Lawyer of the Year" (2015, 2011)
Best Lawyers in America®, in the category of Medical Malpractice (2007–present)
Virginia Super Lawyers® (2006–present), selected by Law & Politics
Named "Top 25 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2012)
"Top 50 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2014)
“Top 50 Virginia Super Lawyers” (2009, 2010, 2013)
"Top 100 Virginia Super Lawyers" (2014)
Best Attorneys "Lifetime Charter Member"
H. Aubrey Ford III:
Best Lawyers in America® "Richmond Employment Law - Individuals Lawyer of the Year" (2016, 2014)
Best Lawyers in America®, in the categories of Legal Malpractice Law, Commercial Litigation, Bet-the-Company Litigation, and Labor & Employment Law (1999–present)
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating for legal ability and ethical standards
American Lawyer Media and Martindale-Hubbell “Top Rated Lawyer” (2012)
Virginia Super Lawyers® (2006-2013), selected by Law & Politics
"Top 10 Virginia Super Lawyers" (2013, 2012, 2011)
"Top 50 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2014, 2013)
"Top 25 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2012)
"Top 33 Richmond Area Super Lawyers" (2011)
"Top 50 Virginia Super Lawyers" (2010)
"Top 100 Virginia Super Lawyers" (2014)
American College of Trial Lawyers (2007–present)
“Legal Elite,” for the state of Virginia, named by Virginia Business Magazine
Appointed to Faculty, Virginia State Bar Mandatory Course on Professionalism (2000-2003)
Mark D. Dix:
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated, Martindale-Hubbell’s highest rating for legal ability and ethical standards
Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, Board of Governors
The Counsellors, Washington, D.C., Vice-President
John Marshall American Inn of Court, Richmond, VA
Virginia Super Lawyers® 2013-2016
Top 50 in Richmond, 2016
Top 100 in Virginia, 2016
Virginia Super Lawyers®, Personal Injury Plaintiff: General, 2013-2016
Virginia SuperLawyers®, Rising Star, 2010-2012
National Trial Lawyers, Top 100 Trial Lawyers, 2012-2015
National Trial Lawyers, Top 40 Under 40, 2013
Virginia Legal Elite, Labor & Employment, Virginia Business, 2012
Virginia Legal Elite, Young Lawyers, Virginia Business, 2009
