Areas of Experience

Disputes involving family and business matters; equitable distribution; business, retirement, deferred compensation, stock options and real estate valuations, divisions and dissolution; property tracing; tax issues; income analysis; alimony; child support, custody, visitation and parenting plans; pre and post nuptial agreements; elder law issues, legal malpractice, construction and contracts; trusts and estates.

Professional Experience

• Judge, City of Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, 2000-2016. Chief Judge, 2008-2010.

• Former Partner and Past Chair of Family Law Practice Group, Kaufman & Canoles, P.C.

• Certified Mediator, Supreme Court of Virginia.

Affiliations

• Fellow, American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers.

• Fellow, Virginia Law Foundation.

• Member, The Boyd-Graves Conference.

• Former Member, I’Anson-Hoffman Inn of Court.

• Past Chair, Board of Governors, Family Law Section; Former Member, Board of Governors, Education of Lawyers Section and General Practice Section, Virginia State Bar.

• Past Chair, Domestic Relations Section; Member, Commission on the Needs of Children; Former Member, Commission on Professionalism, Virginia Bar Association.

• Appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia to serve on Advisory Committee on the Establishment of Family Law Courts in Virginia, 2005.

• Appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia to serve on the Futures Commission on Virginia Courts in the 21st Century, 2005.

• Former Member, Executive Committee, Virginia Council of Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judges, and Former Member, Law Revision Committee of the Judicial Conference of Virginia for District Courts.

• Former Member, Liaison Committee for Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts, Virginia Beach Bar Association.

• Former Co-Lead Judge, Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative, Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.

• Former Co-Lead Judge, Court Improvement Project, Virginia Beach Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.

• Frequent speaker at Continuing Legal Education and Judicial Education Programs on family law issues and complex financial issues in mediation.

• Selected as “Legal Elite” in Alternative Dispute Resolution, Virginia Business, 2020-2024.

• Recipient, Women of Distinction Award, YMCA of South Hampton Roads, 2000.

• Named among “Influential Women of Virginia” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly, 2011.

• Completed 20 hours of “Online Family Mediation Training” with Mediate.com specifically covering issues that relate to “online” mediaiton.

Education

• University of Virginia School of Law, J.D.

• Hollins University, B.A., with Honors.