Richard Hallenback Jr. - Newport News, VA

Rick has spent more than a decade practicing law in the Hampton Roads area, and his career has focused on standing beside people in the most difficult times of their lives.

Having grown up in West Tennessee, Rick studied Accounting at the University of Memphis, where he was a member of the Beta Alpha Psi Accounting Honor Society and graduated with a Bachelor of Business Administration degree. He then spent a year running the day-to-day operations of the Teen Court program, a diversionary juvenile court program focused on restorative justice and peer influence, in his hometown of Jackson, Tennessee.

Rick moved to Lexington, Virginia to attend the Washington and Lee University School of Law. While in law school, he served as Student Bar Association Treasurer and was a Student Editor for the German Law Journal. He spent his summers as a Judicial Extern for the Honorable James D. Todd of the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee and as an intern with the United States Attorney's Office in Memphis, Tennessee. Those experiences impressed upon Rick just how big an impact the law can have on people's lives.

After law school, Rick began a career in public service, serving first as a Magistrate in the City of Portsmouth, Virginia. He then transitioned to practicing criminal law, plying his trial and litigation skills in the Newport News Public Defender's Office, the Suffolk Commonwealth's Attorney's Office, and the Suffolk Public Defender's Office. He gained extensive courtroom experience in dozens of jury trials and hundreds of bench trials, getting great results for his clients.

Throughout his career, Rick has striven to be the person that others can depend on, whether that means defending them from serious charges or prosecuting their abusive partners. He has been honored to stand up for people in the hardest chapters of their lives. Rick takes the same client-centered approach in his family law practice.

Rick spends his falls cheering on his beloved Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team, his winters and springs supporting the Manchester City Football Club, and his summers living and dying (mainly dying) with the New York Mets. He lives in Suffolk with his wife and their daughter, who he hopes will one day be as big of a Beatles fan as he is.