Attorney Biographies

Robert E. Sevila
Prior to Mr. Sevila's admission to the Virginia Bar in 1970, he attended the University of North Carolina where he received his B.A. and J.D. degrees in 1967 and 1970, respectively. Upon his graduation from law school, Mr. Sevila served as a trial attorney in the Tax Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1970 to 1974. He then joined the firm as an attorney in 1974.

Mr. Sevila served on the Herndon Town Council from 1974 to 1976 and served as the Mayor for the Town of Leesburg from 1982 to 1992. He is a co-founder and charter member of the Board of Directors of the F&M Bank of Northern Virginia (formerly the Bank of the Potomac in Herndon, Virginia, now BB&T) (1986-Present). Mr. Sevila served as Chairman of the Board of the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce in 2003. Mr. Sevila is a member and past President of the Loudoun County Bar Association, and is also a member of the American Bar Association, the Virginia State Bar, the Virginia Bar Association and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. He has lectured to both private organizations and local governments on a variety of municipal and land use issues. In addition, Mr. Sevila has testified before Virginia House and Senate Committees on issues relating to land use, transportation, impact fees, transferable development rights, and annexation. He has also taught graduate courses in business law at the Harry F. Byrd, Jr. School of Business, Shenandoah University. His practice emphasizes land use and administrative and municipal law, civil litigation, real estate, and commercial law.

Richard R. Saunders, Jr.
Prior to Mr. Saunders' admission to the Virginia Bar in 1976, he received his B.A. from Princeton University in 1973 and his J.D. from the University of Richmond in 1976. Mr. Saunders joined the firm as a law clerk in 1974 and as an attorney in 1976. Mr. Saunders has been active in youth sports, is a past President of the Blue Ridge Speech and Hearing Center and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Loudoun Hospital Center. He is a member and past-President of the Loudoun County Bar Association, and is also a member of the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. From 1983 to 1986, Mr. Saunders served as a member of the Tenth District Ethics Committee of the Virginia State Bar. His practice emphasizes civil litigation, commercial law, family law, corporate, personal injury, and real estate.

Jon D. Huddleston
Mr. Huddleston was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1986 after receiving his B.A. and J.D. degrees from the College of William and Mary in 1982 and 1986, respectively. Mr. Huddleston has been extremely active in his work with the Virginia State Bar. He currently serves as the representative to the Twentieth Judicial Circuit on the Virginia State Bar Council. He is a past member of the Board of Governors of the Young Lawyer's Conference of the Virginia State Bar and member of the Executive Committee and Chair of the Conference of Local Bar Associations. He has also served a faculty member of the Virginia Mandatory Professionalism Course and the Professionalism Course for Law Schools. He serves on various committees of the Virginia State Bar and is a member of the Board of Directors for the Virginia Law Foundation. Currently, Mr. Huddleston is the President-Elect of the Loudoun Bar Association.

Mr. Huddleston joined the firm as a law clerk in 1984 and as an attorney in 1986. Mr. Huddleston is a member of the Loudoun County Bar Association, the Virginia State Bar, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. His practice areas include family law, DUI and traffic offenses, criminal defense, personal injury and general civil litigation. He has been a frequent lecturer in the areas of DUI defense and family law.

Craig E. White
Mr. White was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1988 after receiving his B.S. degree (cum laude) from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1985 and his J.D. degree from the University of Richmond in 1988. While attending the University of Richmond, Mr. White was selected to be a member of the McNeill Law Society (for high scholastic achievement). Also while at the University of Richmond, Mr. White interned with the Honorable Robert Merhige, United States District Judge (Eastern District of Virginia). He is a member of the Board of Governors of the Family Law Section of the Virginia State Bar (2003-2007 term).

Mr. White joined the firm as a law clerk in 1987 and as an attorney in 1988. Mr. White is a member and past secretary of the Loudoun County Bar Association, and is also a member of the Virginia State Bar (Family Law Section), and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. His practice emphasizes family law, civil litigation, and personal injury.

Lawrence M. Schonberger
   Mr. Schonberger joined the firm in August 2002. He received his Juris Doctor degree from Vermont Law School in 1987 and was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 1988. He received both his Bachelor of Science degree (1979) and Master of Science degree (1984), from Virginia Commonwealth University. Upon his admission to the Virginia State Bar, he practiced law as a member of Fagelson, Schonberger, Payne & Deichmeister, P.C. in Fairfax, Virginia until joining the firm.

  Mr. Schonberger's practice emphasizes real estate, banks and banking, small business corporations, foreclosures, and community association law. He served two terms (1997-2000; 2000-2003) on the Board of Governors for the Real Property Section of the Virginia State Bar, during which he served as Secretary (1999-2000), Vice-Chair (2000-2001) and Chair (2001-2002) of the board. He has written articles on real property issues for the Section's publication the Fee Simple, and lectured on community association issues for the Washington Metropolitan Chapter of the Community Associations Institute.

  As a resident of the Town of Leesburg, Virginia he has served on the Town's Tree Commission (1995-1997) and Planning Commission (1997-2002). He is a member of the Virginia State Bar and the Loudoun County Bar Association.

William R. Fitzpatrick
Mr. Fitzpatrick was admitted to the Virginia State Bar in 1993 after receiving his B.B.A. from the University of Notre Dame in 1990, and his J.D. from the College of William and Mary in 1993. He has served as the 20th Circuit Representative of the Young Lawyers Conference of the Virginia State Bar from 1998 to 2000, and as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Loudoun County Bar Association. He is currently a member of the Loudoun County Bar Association as well as the Virginia State Bar and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association.

Mr. Fitzpatrick joined the firm in 2000. Prior to that, he served as an Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney for the County of Loudoun from 1996 to 2000, and served as Assistant Public Defender for the City of Roanoke and for the County of Fairfax. His practice emphasizes criminal defense, traffic offenses, employment law, commercial law and general civil litigation.

Benjamin B. Fitzgerald
Mr. Fitzgerald received his B.A. (1993) and his M.A. (1996) from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Mr. Fitzgerald received his Juris Doctor in 2002 from the College of William & Mary and was admitted to the Virginia State Bar in 2002.

Mr. Fitzgerald joined the firm in 2002 and is a member of the Loudoun County Bar Association, the Virginia State Bar and the American Bar Association. His practice emphasizes collection and civil litigation.

Rachel K. Downs
Ms. Downs was admitted to the Virginia Bar in 2004 after receiving her B.A. degree (magna cum laude) from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2000 and her J.D. Degree from George Mason University School of Law.

Ms. Downs joined the firm in 2005, and is a member of the Loudoun County Bar Association, and the Virginia State Bar. Her practice areas include Real Estate, Commercial Transactions, Civil Litigation, Wills, Trusts, and Estates.