Winchester, VA

Stephen Skinner

Attorney Stephen Skinner was born and raised in Charles Town, West Virginia. He graduated from Jefferson High School in 1986. During high school, he attended Mountaineer Boys State and the West Virginia Governor’s Honors Academy. He attended West Virginia Wesleyan College, graduating with honors in 1990. After working abroad for one year in London, he attended the West Virginia University College of Law, from which he graduated in 1994. Stephen is a former President of the Board of Trustees of the Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University. He was appointed to and served on the West Virginia Commission on the Arts by then Governor Manchin and served as a member of the Shepherd University Foundation Board of Directors. From 2012-2016, Stephen served two terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates, where he held leadership positions. Stephen began his legal career by working in Charles Town with his father, John Skinner, from 1994 until 1999. He then moved to New York City, where he represented aviation disaster and other catastrophically injured victims, including victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks. He traveled extensively with his New York firm before returning to West Virginia in 2004. He has handled personal injury, wrongful death, consumer rights, and products liability suits across the country. He is a member of the American Association for Justice, the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., the West Virginia Association for Justice, the Maryland Association for Justice, Public Justice, and the National Trial Lawyers. In 2014, the West Virginia Association for Justice honored Stephen with the “Stanley E. Preiser Member of the Year Award.” Stephen was recognized by his peers as a West Virginia Super Lawyer for being a top-rated personal injury lawyer in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. Stephen has litigated high-profile cases including Jefferson County Commission v. Tennant, a congressional redistricting case ultimately decided by the United States Supreme Court. Most recently, Stephen successfully represented governmental entities in national opioid litigation. The West Virginia Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission honored him with its Living the Dream Award for Human and Civil Rights in 2011. In 2014, WVWC awarded Stephen its Alumni Achievement Award. He was also honored with the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award for the Arts in 2014. In 2024, Stephen honored to be an Above and Beyond Award receipient from the American Association for Justice.

Peter C. Burnett

Peter Burnett is a graduate of Hobart College and Antioch School of Law. He has practiced law in Leesburg since 1977. Peter limited his practice to personal injury law when he founded Burnett & Williams in 1988. In addition to building the firm into one of Virginia’s oldest and most experienced personal injury law firms, Peter has compiled an impressive array of legal achievements, including obtaining the highest wrongful death verdict in Virginia history, obtaining the highest personal injury verdict in Loudoun County, and other record results. Peter has guided the firm through a number of noteworthy cases including multi-million-dollar settlements and verdicts for wrongful death, medical malpractice and automobile accident cases. He has earned a reputation as a relentless advocate who is always willing to negotiate carefully and creatively on behalf of his in pursuit of a fair outcome. In cases large and small, Peter works closely with clients to uncover every important detail and to convey a full understanding of their claims to the insurance adjustors and attorneys on the other side. For his dedicated service to his clients and the Virginia legal system, Peter has received numerous accolades and honors. Among them are Lawyer of the Year designated by U.S. News for Plaintiff’s personal injury in 2022 and induction into the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame. He has also served in leadership positions in the Virginia State Bar and locally having been President of the Loudoun County Bar Association, a member of the Virginia State Bar Council, Chairman of the VSB Diversity Conference, and Chairman of the VSB Judicial Nominations Committee. Currently, as the Chair of the VSB Senior Lawyers Conference, Peter assembled a team to produce a video on the importance of civility and professionalism for lawyers. It is intended to have multiple uses from presentations to 3rd year law students to continuing legal education seminars for practicing lawyers to law firm education for young associates. Peter has been committed to charitable activities in Loudoun County for many years. He is a founding director of the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter, a founding director and Chairman of Loudoun Cares, Co-Chairman of the Downtown Improvement Association, founder and Chairman of the Loudoun Law Foundation, and founding Chairman of the Virginia Diversity Foundation, the parent organization of the Ampersand Pantry Project. Whether salvaging a historic Leesburg structure, building a home for a valued member of the community, or planning for the future of downtown Leesburg, Peter is tirelessly devoted to the common good.

Andrew Skinner

Andrew C. Skinner grew up in Charles Town, West Virginia. He graduated from Jefferson High School in 1988 and then attended the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, from which he received a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1992. Andrew participated in the ROTC program at William and Mary and was commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. Andrew was on active duty in the Army for four years, serving as a tanker and then a logistician in the 4th Infantry Division. After coming off of active duty, Andrew studied at the University of Texas School of Law in Austin, one of the top-ranked law schools in the nation. Andrew graduated with honors from the University of Texas and moved to Chicago, where he took up practice with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, one of the largest law firms in the country. His primary practice involved product liability lawsuits. Andrew returned home to West Virginia in 2003 and joined his father’s practice at Nichols & Skinner, which has since been renamed Skinner Accident & Injury Lawyers. Andrew focuses on personal injury law. Exceedingly important to Andrew are cases that seek to protect the public. For instance, Andrew believes that one of the most effective approaches to stopping drunk driving and protecting our community members is to bring lawsuits against drunk drivers and the bars that over serve them. These so-called “dram shop” cases ensure that bars and patrons act responsibly by forcing them to compensate victims who are injured in drunk-driving crashes. Being deeply involved in the community is very important to all the Skinners, including Andrew. He has served on the Board of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce, including as president, where he worked to improve the local business community by providing opportunities for businesspeople to network, by providing educational opportunities, and by showing off what wonderful business opportunities exist in the Eastern Panhandle. In the same vein, Andrew is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Jefferson County Development Authority. Andrew continued his military career after coming off of active duty by serving both in the National Guard and the Reserves, including two more years mobilized on active duty. He has served in Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Germany, and South Korea, along with posts throughout the United States. Andrew served for a total of thirty years, retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel. As an Army Reserve Soldier, one of his favorite jobs was as an instructor of a graduate-level course for Army officers seeking to become battalion commanders and high-level staff members. He enjoyed teaching doctrine, history, and leadership. Learning how to be a leader has long been part of Andrew’s life. It started with Andrew being the student government president in high school, continued with ROTC in college, and intensified during his thirty years of military service. Wanting to share the leadership skills and lessons he has learned throughout his life, Andrew founded Leadership Jefferson, a program of the Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce. Andrew spends innumerable hours every year guiding approximately 20 current or future leaders through a ten-month-long course. Leadership Jefferson covers how Jefferson County operates and helps build leadership skills. Creating and running Leadership Jefferson has provided him with insight into the workings and character of this community. Andrew is married to Kathy Skinner, who was elected in 2014 and re-elected in 2018 and 2022 to the Jefferson County Board of Education. Kathy is a Board member of Charles Town Now, an organization dedicated to improving economic opportunities and conditions in the historic downtown of Charles Town. Additionally, she is a board member of both the Jefferson County Development Authority as well as the James Rumsey Technical Institute. In addition to his Jefferson County-based leadership roles, Andrew is a member of the American Association for Justice and the West Virginia Association for Justice, for which he serves as a board member.

C. Michelle Buelow

Michelle is a member of Parthemos, Curran, Buelow and Polizzi, PLLC. A graduate of the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and George Mason University School of Law, Michelle has been practicing law since 2008. She concentrates her practice on handling workers’ compensation and personal injury cases.

C. James Williams III

Jim Williams is a summa cum laude graduate of George Mason University School of Law who began his legal career with a prestigious assignment as a law clerk to United States District Court Judge Glen M. Williams in Roanoke, Virginia. He practiced at Gentry, Locke, Rakes, and Moore in Roanoke and at Morris & Morris in Richmond before becoming litigation counsel for Progressive Insurance Company. With Progressive, he gained extensive experience as a trial attorney, giving him wide-ranging expertise in the complexities of Virginia insurance law, and knowledge of how the defense side approaches litigation. In 1999, Jim left defense and coverage work and began representing injured plaintiffs. A veteran litigator, he has tried more than one hundred personal injury jury cases and was appellate counsel in Virginia’s leading scientific evidence case, Tittsworth v. Robinson. Jim Williams joined Burnett & Williams in 2006 as the lead partner in the Richmond area, with offices in Midlothian and Hopewell, Virginia. He is a regular contributor of law journal articles on personal injury law and litigation issues, and provides expert legal analysis and commentary as a contributor to leading media platforms including Yahoo and Hello Magazine. Jim’s wealth of experience in insurance coverage matters provides invaluable expertise in an insurance-driven legal environment that becomes more complex each year. Born in France and raised in Germany, Jim grew up speaking German, French, and English. He still speaks French with such a pure accent that native Frenchmen can’t tell he is American. He has recently taken up Spanish, delighting in discerning the differences linguistically between Spanish, French and English. Jim has passed his love of languages on to his five children. Ranging in age from mid-teens to mid- twenties, his children are his main focus and his primary source of joy. Over the years he has been an active participant in the Midlothian PTA and a leader of the Evergreen Athletic Association. In 2006, Jim founded The Beth Williams Field of Dreams Foundation, a nonprofit organization named after his late wife, whom he lost to cancer. The foundation is dedicated to bringing people together to make sure children have the best facilities possible to play the sports they love. Partnering with the community, the foundation recently helped transform a 3-acre tract adjacent to the Watkins Annex from an hideous into a multi-use athletic facility that will serve the entire Midlothian community. Jim enjoys being outdoors, whether he is running with his dogs, playing golf, skiing, camping, or fishing. His most relaxing diversion, however, is flying airplanes: like his father and uncle before him, Jim is a licensed pilot.

John B. Krall

John Krall is an attorney with Ritchie Law Firm since 1991, specializing in automobile/tractor trailer collisions and medical negligence. He has extensive jury trial experience and is admitted to practice in Virginia (1988) and West Virginia (2004).

Roger A. Ritchie, Sr.

Roger Ritchie, Sr., is the founder and a senior partner of Ritchie Law Firm practicing primarily in the area of automobile/tractor trailer collisions, traumatic brain injuries, products liability, nursing home abuse, and complex litigation. He has extensive experience in civil litigation and is a Certified Civil Trial Specialist. He was admitted to practice in Virginia in 1975 and West Virginia in 1992.