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This month saw the official appointment of a Suffolk mainstay to the City’s 5th Judicial Court system. Robert C. Barclay, IV celebrated his Investiture on Friday, Oct. 18 with many Suffolk and Virginia dignitaries in attendance for his installation. Chief Judge, Nicole A. Belote, gave remarks on Barclay during the ceremony. 

“It was abundantly clear that a great decision was made by our legislators,” Belote said. “Rob has an unmatched level of dedication, knowledge and intellect, and probably most importantly in the words of Judge Crowe, ‘He’s a good guy.’ Rob welcome to the bench, we’re happy to have you and you are a great addition to our team.”

Barclay is no stranger to the Suffolk community: A Portsmouth native graduating from Nansemond-Suffolk Academy in 1978, Barclay studied history and law at the University of Virginia and also served five years in the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate Corps. Along with practicing law with his father and Cooper, Spong & Davis, Barclay served as a City Council member in 2008 in the Sleepy Hole Borough. Likewise, he has also served as a member of Suffolk Economic Development Authority, Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization, Virginia State Bar First Disciplinary Committee, a representative with the Virginia State Bar Council, and much more.

During a Friday, Oct. 25 interview, Barclay talked about his first three months as a judge, growing up, his studies and service, and more. Starting his term on July 1, he detailed that after the General Assembly elects their judges, most begin their terms on the first of July for the fiscal year. Barclay says his first three months have been “a learning experience.”

“…the difference of being a judge and practicing law, one of the biggest differences I found, it’s a shorter day, but it’s a much more intense day,” Barclay said. “But in practicing law, it’s not unusual to work 10 to 12 hours a day, but it’s spread out. And you know, you’re in a bit more control of your schedule. With a judge, you may only be on the bench anywhere from three to six hours typically, but in that time period, you’ve got to be very, very focused because you got to listen to each set of facts, all the parties…”

Barclay says as General District Judges, they hear a large volume of cases, ranging from traffic, evictions, misdemeanors, criminal offenses and small claims.

“It is not unusual for us to hear 150 or 200 cases in the morning. Now a lot of those are traffic tickets and they go very quickly. But even so, even if 50 of those are contested, you know, makes for a long morning, very intense, that sort of thing…,” he said. “Circuit Court, often those cases go on for months or maybe even years, so there’s several hearings and when there’s a trial in Circuit Court, it’s very focused, it could take an extended period. But in General District Court, it’s just moving right through.”

Barclay says he grew up in a middle class neighborhood in Portsmouth going to Churchland Elementary School then Nansemond-Suffolk Academy for middle and high school. Having a “wonderful experience” studying as a History major at the University of Virginia, Barclay says he took a year off after graduation and worked on political campaigns, where he met some notable names.

“At that time, Chuck Robb was the Governor, and he started a program called the Governor’s Fellows Program. That sort of got me interested in public service,” Barclay said. “I worked as an intern there for several months. And then after that, there was a man who had been the Mayor of Portsmouth. His name was Dick Davis, and he had been elected Lieutenant Governor, and then he was running for the US Senate, so I was the driver on his campaign. So I got dropped all over the state, and James Carville was the manager of that campaign, which is very interesting.”

Following his move to work in the General Assembly as an Aide for Retired Senator Dick Saslaw of Fairfax as well working at Capital Hill for Former U.S. Representative Norman Sisisky, Barclay started law school the following year. 

“Had a wide range of experience there. I wasn’t quite sure what I [wanted] to do. I had the opportunity to work for some large firms of big cities, but I kind of wanted to do something else. I was interested in public service. That’s when I joined the Navy JAG Corps and got to travel. I lived in the Philippines for two years,” he said.

Along with practicing law with Cooper, Spong and Davis and serving as City Council Member, Barclay called both experiences “rewarding.” He reflected on his time representing the Sleepy Hole borough. 

“Local Government is where you deal with folks in their everyday lives and situations and that was very rewarding,” he said. “While I was on the City Council, that’s when Suffolk’s bond rating was upgraded to AAA rating. So I’m very proud to be part of that. And in fact, when I was on the City Council, was when we voted to establish the new courthouse and build that…” 

A history buff, Barclay recalls reading the encyclopedias that his parents bought as a child as the first moment he found interest in history. He expressed the importance of understanding history and how it influences the future.

“So I’ve always felt it was really important to understand the history of where you come from, where you’ve been, where you live, because that informs you a great deal about the circumstances today,” Barclay said. “And if you see what people did then, you can analyze both positives and negatives. You can see things people did well, but you can see mistakes that were made. And hopefully we can learn from that and try to improve.”

He also noted his grandmother was from Suffolk and gave a brief history of her own parents running the Suffolk Hotel during the 1800s, which was located at the corner of Constance Rd and Main St.

“And her parents ran that, it was an old Victorian type building. But when she was 10 years old, they ended up both dying of tuberculosis. And which, those days, it was not that uncommon. So this would have been the early 1900s,” he said. “So her brother though was a traveling salesman, had a good job, and so he was able to put her in what was called Miss Finney’s Girls School.”

Barclay continued.

“And if you’re familiar with Finney [Avenue] in Suffolk? Finney and Main? There’s a collection of buildings back there. Those buildings are well over 100 years old, and that’s where the school was. That’s why it’s called Finney [Avenue]. Miss Finney ran the school. And so, from the time she was 10, until she was 18 or 19, she lived there,” Barclay said.

On advice for Suffolk and Hampton Roads residents aspiring to work in the law, Barclay says it’s important to understand that practicing law is a sense of public service, regardless of private practice or in the judiciary.

“An important aspect of practicing law is a sense of public service, because even in private practice, you’re serving the public, you’re helping folks to ensure that their rights are respected or that their affairs and their life are properly ordered,” he said. “And so, it’s very much assisting people and helping them through either a difficult situation or just helping them with the sort of the transactional aspects of their normal life. And so, you’ve got to be constantly aware that you do have an element of public service.”

Likewise, he gave a simple message to Suffolk residents as a new judge.

“If you come before me, my intention is to be thoughtful and fair,” he ended.