Bruce Matson News Today

On April 22, 2024, Diana Kay Jacobson was called home and set free from all her Earthly suffering.

The agreement effectively ends a legal scandal that began three years ago when Matson, a now-disbarred veteran Richmond attorney, was caught stealing millions of dollars from LandAmerica’s bankruptcy winddown fund while serving as the estate’s trustee.

The deal allows the former Richmond attorney to walk away from the lawsuit without paying any additional money back into the LandAmerica bankruptcy estate and ends all disputes between the two sides.

The resolution is playing out through mediation but has been slowed by the difficulty of communicating with Matson while he serves his federal prison sentence in West Virginia.

In case you missed them: Our best of the week includes stories of Scott's Addition's first food hall, Regency's first apartments, a peek inside a disgraced local lawyer's first months in prison and a longtime construction exec's first cross-country bike trip.

The former LeClairRyan attorney is incarcerated in West Virginia, but the successor trustee on the case continues to pursue a lawsuit against him seeking hundreds of thousands in damages.

Robert Bailey Smith IV, who admitted receiving $1.5 million of the $3 million Matson was caught stealing, paid the money back and has not been charged criminally or civilly.

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The law firm’s bankruptcy case continues, one of its top attorneys is in prison, and Live Well Financial’s former CEO fights his fraud conviction.

Included in the settlement is co-founder and namesake Gary LeClair and two other former CEOs. The money will be paid from an insurance policy.