“This is a very well-deserved recognition for Bob, who continues to be an outstanding real estate attorney and thought leader in our global Real Estate Group,” said Paul Didomenico, chair of Reed Smith’s Real Estate Group. “His 48-year record of service and experience to the firm, to the profession and to the community, is stellar. We are extremely pleased he has been honored for his lifetime of career achievements.”
A lifelong Virginia attorney, Diamond’s practice has focused on the development and operation of condominium and homeowner associations and those working with community associations across Virginia and the nation. Throughout his career, he has excelled in planning and developing condominiums, mixed-use projects and planned unit developments.
The Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame award celebrates esteemed members of Virginia’s legal community who have reached the age of 60 or older for their lasting contributions to the legal field across the Commonwealth. Honorees have made their mark in the courtroom or the boardroom, in their firms and with community organizations, and with local, state and national bar associations, VLW says.
“I am deeply appreciative to be included to a list of amazing people added to the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame this year,” said Diamond. “My fellow class members are incredibly distinguished and highly accomplished, and I am honored to be among them. I have been very fortunate to work with many colleagues to improve the law for community associations in the Commonwealth and elsewhere.”
Diamond contributed to many amendments to the Virginia Condominium Act over the years; led the D.C. Bar Subcommittee on Condominiums, which drafted and participated in the enactment of the District of Columbia Condominium Act of 1976 over a period of two years; and drafted amendments to the Act enacted in 1991.
Diamond also served on the Fairfax County Condominium Conversion Task Force, the Virginia Housing Study Commission Subcommittee reviewing community association laws, and the Virginia Common Interest Community Board Regulatory Advisory Committee, which recommended changes to the regulations governing registration of condominiums in Virginia in 2011, 2012 and 2024. In 2016, he became a member of the Common Interest Community Sub-Work Group advising the Virginia Code Commission on the recodification of the community association laws in Virginia, including the Subdivided Land Sales Act, the Common Interest Community Management Information Fund statute, the Horizontal Property Act, the Condominium Act and the Real Estate Cooperative Act.
Diamond is one of four drafters of the Uniform Condominium Act for the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (now the Uniform Laws Commission) and was a consultant to or witness before state legislatures considering adoption of the Uniform Condominium Act in Florida, Louisiana, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, West Virginia and Wyoming. For over 10 years, Diamond served as a representative to the Joint Editorial Board on Uniform Real Estate Acts.
Active in the Community Associations Institute since 1974, he was president of the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Chapter in 1984 and president of the national organization in 1996. Diamond was also selected as a member of the charter class of the College of Community Association Lawyers and elected to its Board of Governors for 2015. The College awarded him the Gurdon Buck Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Diamond was also selected as the Super Lawyers 2022 Lawyer of the Year in Community Associations Law.
Diamond has also been a full member of the Urban Land Institute for many years and presently serves on the Full Member Engagement Committee and Technical Assistance Panel Committee of its Washington District Council. He formerly served on the Technical Assistance Panel for the Westphalia area of Prince George’s County, Md., and as a consultant to other attorneys in designing the structure and documentation for complex condominium and mixed-use projects and as an expert witness in litigation matters involving community association issues.
He and his fellow members of the Hall of Fame 2024 will be honored at a special event May 23 at the John Marshall Ballroom in Richmond. Profiles of the honorees will appear in a special section in the May issue of Virginia Lawyers Weekly.