I was born in Magnolia, Arkansas, and was raised in the countryside near Waldo, Arkansas. I received my undergraduate education at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. My degree from Arkansas is in English Literature, and this choice reflects my love of reading and writing.

While in college I was a member of the United States Army's Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC). Upon graduation I received a Regular Army commission. During my three and a half years on active duty I served as a tank platoon leader, battalion adjutant, and assistant brigade adjutant in the Third Armored Division in the Federal Republic of Germany.

After leaving the Army I came to Virginia to attend law school. During this time I fell in love with Virginia and decided to stay here.

My first job as a lawyer was serving as a law clerk to Judge Glen M. Williams, a federal district judge in Big Stone Gap, Virginia. Thereafter, I entered private practice, but events soon led me to secure a second clerkship with Judge Orinda D. Evans, a federal district judge in Atlanta, Georgia.

My two clerkships provided the foundation of my ability as a legal researcher and writer. It was my privilege to draft several opinions that the judges chose to publish. During my clerkship with Judge Evans I drafted well over 200 opinions that spanned many areas of the law. One such opinion was Judge Evans' decision in Joiner v. General Electric Co., 864 F. Supp. 1310 (N.D. Ga. 1994). In 1996 the Eleventh Circuit reversed the decision. The next year the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the Eleventh Circuit and reinstated Judge Evans' ruling. The Supreme Court's opinion in Joiner is the middle case in the so-called "Daubert trilogy" that addresses the admissibility of expert testimony in federal court.

I have been in private practice continuously since my clerkship with Judge Evans ended. My private-practice experience encompasses extensive litigation and non-litigation work in the areas of general civil practice, collections, estates, personal injury/ wrongful death, and domestic relations. I also have experience with arbitration, bankruptcy from the perspective of both debtors and creditors, business "divorces" and work-outs, issues and disputes involving homeowners associations, and guardianship/ conservatorship proceedings. Finally, in 1996 I served as the "second chair" for the defendant in a first-degree murder case that resulted in acquittal.