Law Practice

I concentrate my law practice in the areas of business law, real estate and litigation. As General Counsel to The Resorts Companies, Inc., related operating entities, Spring Creek Land Development, LLC, and several affiliated mortgage companies and owner's associations, I understand the problems that confront real estate developers in both the residential and resort industries.

I have broad experience in commercial litigation, handling disputes over contracts; real estate; and business torts like misrepresentations; conspiracies, wrongful interference with contractual relationships, professional errors and omissions; breaches of fiduciary duty. I have also helped clients struggling with business and church breakups, intellectual property, lending relationships, construction projects, and have represented employers, employees and unions in a variety of employment related disputes from discrimination claims to contract negotiations.

In addition to my litigation practice, I have administered both large and small estates, and represented businesses and individuals in a variety of transactions and negotiations involving financing, sales of businesses and real estate, and employment contracts.

I am not presently accepting cases, but continue to represent my existing clients.

Education and Employment Experience

After attending college at the University of Virginia and earning a master's degree at The George Washington University, I completed my law degree at the University of Maryland School of Law where I served as Executive Editor of the Maryland Law Review. In 1991 and 1992 I served a judicial clerkship with United States District Judge James H. Michael, Jr., where I was exposed to a broad range of federal litigation at the district court level, and in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. I then joined the Charlottesville law firm of MichieHamlett where I worked for 18 years before opening my separate practice, and subsequently joining The Resorts Companies, Inc.

Community Service

I believe in serving my community as well as my clients. Presently, I do that as President and Director of the Monticello Area Community Action Agency("MACAA"), a public service committed to eradicating poverty in central Virginia. I am also a former chairman and board member of the Charlottesville Catholic School's advisory school board and president of the Minor-Preston Educational Fund, a local scholarship fund granting need-based scholarships to minority and financially disadvantaged students. I have also served as president of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society and the Ronald McDonald House of Charlottesville.