Over a career that began in 1979, Irv has recovered more than 75 verdicts and settlements larger than $1 million for injured people in Richmond and throughout Virginia and across the country. By the firm’s accounting, his work has produced more than 2,000 favorable verdicts and settlements, including more than 450 traumatic brain injury cases. His reputation as a prepared and effective trial lawyer reflects the work he puts into every matter, particularly the catastrophic injury and brain injury cases that other lawyers consider the most difficult to try.

Representative results include:

• $15 million personal injury settlement
• $15 million wrongful death verdict
• $8 million professional negligence settlement
• $5.95 million medical negligence settlement
• $5.6 million personal injury verdict

As a member of the firm’s trial team, Irv has also played a key role in helping to secure countless significant recoveries in catastrophic injury and death cases, including many with his son, Joseph Cantor.

Traumatic brain injury cases make up the largest part of Irv’s practice, which he has built over more than four decades. He wrote the chapter on the medicolegal aspects of traumatic brain injury for Brain Injury Medicine (Demos Medical Publishing, 2006), a leading medical textbook on the subject. In 2015, Virginia and West Virginia Super Lawyers magazine featured Irv on its cover in a story about his brain injury practice, The Brain Behind Brain Injuries (ext).

The vast majority of Irv’s cases come to him as referrals from other trial lawyers. Many professionals have asked Irv to represent them in their own injury cases, including attorneys, judges, claims adjusters, and physicians. He is a frequent lecturer to trial lawyers throughout Virginia and the country on traumatic brain injury, truck accident litigation, premises liability, liability insurance, and the elements of effective trial practice. He is the co-author, with Judge Samuel Johnston, of The Art and Science of Mastering the Jury Trial, published by the Virginia Trial Lawyers Foundation.

Irv is the founder and president of Jury Impressions, a jury consulting firm he established in 2005 that arranges mock trials and focus groups for trial lawyers across the country. He also serves as a mediator and arbitrator in a wide variety of catastrophic injury and wrongful death matters.

Irv is widely recognized by his peers. In 2018, he was inducted into the inaugural class of the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame. He has been named Richmond Personal Injury Litigation Plaintiffs’ Lawyer of the Year by The Best Lawyers in America for 2014, 2016, and 2025, and Richmond Medical Malpractice Law Plaintiffs’ Lawyer of the Year for 2020. He was named among the Top 10 Virginia Super Lawyers from 2012 to 2018 and has been selected to Virginia Super Lawyers since 2006. He is AV Preeminent Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest available rating for legal ability and ethical standards.

Irv’s standing in the profession has long made him a leader in the organizations that shape trial practice in Virginia. He is a past President of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (ext), the Brain Injury Association of Virginia, the Virginia chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ext), and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Foundation, and he served as chair of the Brain Injury Association of America (ext) national legal conference. He is a member of the American Association for Justice and its Brain Injury Litigation Group.

While Irv is devoted to the work he does for his clients, he is equally devoted to his community, and to tennis in particular. In 2025 he was inducted into the Richmond Tennis Hall of Fame, recognition of a lifelong commitment to the game that began when he served as a ball boy for Arthur Ashe at a Davis Cup match in Byrd Park. In 2024 he was elected to the board of the Black Tennis Hall of Fame, and he works with the Richmond Tennis Association and the City of Richmond to expand access to tennis for the city’s young people. He remains active with the Brain Injury Association of Virginia (ext), which recognized him with its 2023 Anne McDonnell Legacy Award and its 2010 Weinstock Award.