Stephen concentrates his practice on handling workers’ compensation and personal injury cases. A graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and the University of Richmond Law School, Stephen has been practicing law since 1995. After graduating from law school, Stephen went to work for a small personal injury firm. He quickly developed his skills as a trial attorney, trying approximately 50 personal injury jury trials to a verdict in his first four years of practice.
After his first few years in practice, Stephen began to focus his practice on workers’ compensation. He has tried hundreds of workers’ compensation cases and has taken his client cases to the highest Virginia courts handling workers’ compensation cases, including the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Virginia on numerous occasions. He has been involved in numerous cases setting significant precedents in the area of workers’ compensation law. He has tried and settled numerous cases for his clients which has resulted in benefits and settlements in excess of a million dollars. In 2021, he settled a case for a workers’ compensation client for $5,300,000, the second-largest workers’ compensation settlement in the history of Virginia according to Virginia Lawyers Weekly. This settlement was the third largest settlement of any kind in 2021, as well.
He is an active member of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (VTLA), the Richmond Bar Association and the American Association of Justice (AAJ). He serves as a Fellow with the College of Workers' Compensation Lawyers and on the board of governors of both VTLA and WILG. He is the past chair of the workers’ compensation section for VTLA and lobbies on behalf of injured workers at the Virginia General Assembly as the legislative co-chair of VTLA’s Workers’ Compensation Section.
Because of his tireless work on behalf of his clients, Stephen has also been recognized by Virginia Lawyers Weekly as a 2021 Leader in The Law. Stephen has also been selected as a Virginia “Super Lawyer” for the last three years, as well as for inclusion in the publication “Best Lawyers in America” since 2016 in the category of workers’ compensation. He has been named by WILG as one of the Nation’s Top 100 Injured Workers’ Attorneys. Since 2016, Stephen has also been named to the list of the Top 100 Lawyers in Virginia and the Top 50 Attorneys in Richmond, and he was named the Top Claimants Workers’ Compensation Attorneys in Richmond in 2021.
In addition, Stephen has written numerous articles and frequently lectures on numerous occasions in regard to his areas of specialty; he is a recognized expert in regard to the interplay between both personal injury and workers’ compensation cases involving the same accident.
Stephen not only has expertise in handling accident and disability cases, but he spends much of his free time working on his race car so he can get back behind the wheel at the next race. He regularly races in the NASA Mid-Atlantic region circuit and has numerous wins and class championships to his name.
