Trial lawyer Randy Singer has fought and won countless cases throughout his illustrious 39-year career, but now he faces his biggest fight.
Singer, a nationally respected attorney with the Virginia Beach-based firm Singer Hoffman, was diagnosed with stage 4 esophageal cancer in August. But despite the heaviness of what’s on his plate, including three days of chemotherapy every two weeks, he is pressing on in his true go-getter fashion.
He is making sure that at least one of seven items on his bucket list — creating The Singer Center for Advocacy at Regent University’s School of Law — will come to fruition. A longtime adjunct professor at Regent, Singer will serve as the center’s executive director.
“I love law students,” he said. “They’re just at that place in life where the whole world’s their canvas to paint on.”
The center is a new initiative designed to train the next generation of virtuous advocates — meaning attorneys who look at their work as a sacred calling as they take difficult cases, serve with distinction and put justice first. Students will receive hands-on intensive training, mentorship, practical skills and real-world experience, including representing victims of terrorism in multinational litigation.
“There’s a saying: ‘I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand,’” Singer said. “We want to get to the ‘I do and I understand’ piece of it.”
Randy Singer, an attorney with the Virginia Beach-based firm Singer Hoffman is battling stage 4 esophageal cancer. He is establishing The Singer Center for Advocacy at Regent University’s School of Law and will serve as its executive director. (Courtesy/Singer Hoffman)
Former Virginia Beach prosecutor and judge Pamela Hutchens, whom Singer is dating, has been by his side as the two decided together to make the dream of the center a reality. Hutchens, who teaches trial practice at Regent and coaches trial teams alongside Singer, will serve as the center’s associate director.
“We want to make the students great advocates, but also the kind of advocates who are ethical and realize it’s all about the clients, not about them,” Singer said.
Ernie Walton, newly appointed dean of Regent University School of Law, said reinforcing advocacy, one of the school’s five core values, will strengthen the school: “Advocacy is a powerful thing and that’s at the heart of being a lawyer.”
Naming the center after Singer was a no-brainer, Walton said. It not only honors the mentor but also models the type of lawyer Regent wants to train, particularly as the legal profession often gets a bad rap.
A wing of the law school will undergo a renovation for a designated center space, which is anticipated to open next fall. More than $1 million has been pledged to launch it, and the goal is to raise $2.5 million to endow the center’s future for generations.
“One of the most rewarding things to me is that some of the larger donations have come from clients I’ve represented,” Singer said. “It’s cool when you can be there for someone at their worst moment and then they’re there for you at your worst moment.”
Singer continues to practice law — with his daughter, Rosalyn, a partner in the firm — and is penning his 17th novel.
For the past 18 years, he has preached as a teaching pastor (now emeritus) at Trinity, a nondenominational church in Virginia Beach.
The congregation prays and fasts for him every Friday. He said they also wear bracelets that say “don’t shrink back” and “not today cancer.”
A scan in October revealed that his cancer has significantly receded, he said.
“I think God’s been doing a real-time miracle in front of all of us,” Singer said. “I’ve just been blessed in so many ways.”
Sandra J. Pennecke, 757-652-5836, sandra.pennecke@pilotonline.com
