[1] Born in Alamance County, North Carolina, Way graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1907.
[2] Admitted to the Virginia bar, Way was in private practice in Norfolk from 1907 to 1922, and tried to revitalize the Republican party in the Tidewater region.
[1] Because of the Great Depression, bankruptcies and receiverships (including of the Norfolk Southern Railway) in 1932, dominated his docket.
During the New Deal, Judge Way heard cases concerning constitutionality of the Agricultural Adjustment Act, which the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately ruled unconstitutional.
[5] Thus, when a similar matter involving schoolteacher Dorothy Roles reached Judge Way, in January 1943, he issued an injunction forbidding further pay discrimination.