Areas of Experience

State and local government, labor, employment, civil rights, consumer, and contract matters.

Professional Experience

• Certified Mediator, Supreme Court of Virginia.
• Counsel, Sands Anderson PC, 2020-2022.
• Chief Deputy Attorney General, Commonwealth of Virginia, 2014-2020.
• City Attorney, City of Hampton, Virginia, 2006-2013; Deputy City Attorney, 1996-2005.
• Associate Attorney, McGuireWoods LLP, 1987-1995.

Affiliations

• Fellow, Virginia Law Foundation, Class of 2015.
• Former President, Local Government Attorneys of Virginia.
• Recipient, Edward J. Finnegan Award for Distinguished Service, Local Government Attorneys of Virginia, 2021.
• Member, William & Mary Board of Visitors, 2020-Present.
• Chair, Governor’s Commission to Examine Racial Inequity in Virginia Law, 2019-2022.
• Former Co-Chair, Governor’s Commission on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
• Former Member, Virginia State Crime Commission.
• Former Member, Board of Directors, Thomas Nelson Community College.
• Former Member, Virginia Supreme Court Commission on the Evaluation of Judges.
• Recognized as a “Leader in the Law,” Virginia Lawyers Weekly, 2021.
• Listed in “Best Lawyers in America” in Municipal Law, 2022-2023.
• Selected as “Legal Elite” in Labor/Employment Law, 2020-2022; “Legal Elite” in Alternative Dispute Resolution, 2024, Virginia Business.
• Member, Inaugural Class of “Influential Women of Law,” Virginia Lawyers Weekly, 2019.
• Recipient, Oliver Hill Civil Rights Leader Award, Richmond Chapter of the NAACP, 2018.
• Recipient, Virginia Women in History Award, Library of Virginia, 2015.
• Former Member, Board of Directors, Boys & Girls Club of Great Hampton Roads (Peninsula Facility); Peninsula Metropolitan YMCA (Hampton, VA); Transitions Family Violence Services (Hampton, VA): Riverside Behavioral Health (Newport News, VA).
• Former Adjunct Professor, State and Local Government law, William & Mary School of Law.

Education

• William & Mary Law School, J.D.
• Virginia Commonwealth University, B.S.