Free Virtual Event
with Ebonie Alexander, Executive Director of the Black Family Land Trust and David Gogal, Principal at Blankingship & Keith, P.C.
Have you inherited property? Do you own property in common with family members?
Family owned land has many social, economic, and conservation benefits. It can be a family’s most valuable asset. However, land owned by multiple family members and generations is more at risk of being lost due to sale or partition.
This webinar will review what heirs property is, how you become an heir, what resources you and your family need to make the best decisions about your land, the basics of the new Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act and what it means for you and your family.
This is a free virtual event presented in partnership with the Black Family Land Trust, Virginia United Land Trusts, and Piedmont Environmental Council.
Event flyer available here.
Header photo courtesy of the Black Family Land Trust.
Speakers
Ebonie Alexander
Lillian "Ebonie" Alexander, Executive Director of the Black Family Land Trust, Inc. (BFLT). The BFLT is a niche land trust and one of the nation’s only regional land trust dedicated to the preservation and protection of African-American and other historically underserved landowners land assets. Since joining the BFLT in 2009, Ebonie designed and implemented the African American Land Ethic and Wealth Retention and Asset Protection (WRAP) programs. Together these two programs have assisted landowners to retain family ownership and control of more than $12.5 million of their land assets and deployed more than $500,000 USDA-EQIP funding to landowners during the past five years.
Ebonie currently serves on the American Farmland Trust, the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and the North Farm Stewardship Association. In 2020 Ebonie was awarded the Gerald P. McCarthy Award for Leadership in Environmental Conflict Resolution from The Institute for Engagement & Negotiation at the University of Virginia.
A native of Maryland, Ebonie lives in rural Virginia on land that has been in her family for generations. She is a proud Virginian, avid reader and lover of history and grandmother of two. Ebonie can trace her family’s history in Virginia to the mid-1730’s.
David Gogal
David is a principal in the law firm of Blankingship & Keith, P.C. in the City of Fairfax. He is a civil litigator with over 30 years of trial practice, primarily before the various Virginia Circuits Courts in Northern Virginia as well as the Federal Courts for the Eastern District of Virginia. He also has substantial appellate experience arguing before the Supreme Court of Virginia and the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. His practice has concentrated on commercial litigation, employment law, real estate law, legal malpractice defense, and appellate representation.
David is an active member of the Virginia State Bar, currently serving on Bar Council and on the Disciplinary Board, and previously having served as Chair of the Standing Committee on Lawyer Discipline and Chair of the Fifth District Disciplinary Committee. He also served as a member for 6 years on the Professionalism Committee and was appointed to the faculty of the Mandatory Professionalism Course.
David currently serves on the Board of Governors for the Virginia Bar Association and on the Civil Litigation Council. David also has been an active member of the Boyd Graves Conference, and has had the opportunity to chair several committees.
David also serves on the Board of the Virginia Law Foundation and is a member of the Virginia CLE Committee.
Earlier in his career, David held several leadership positions with the Fairfax Bar Association, including serving as President, a Member of the Board of Directors, Chair of the Circuit Court Committee, and a member of the Judicial Screening Committee. He has been a Co-Editor of the Fairfax Circuit Court Practice Manual since 2002 (which includes the 2002, 2004, 2007, 2010, 2014 and 2018 Editions).
David received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia, where he was awarded the UVA Alumni Association Distinguished Student Award. For over 20 years beginning in 1993, David has returned for most winters to Charlottesville to serve as a faculty member of the National Trial Advocacy College at the University of Virginia School of Law.