John H Foote - Woodbridge, VA

Overview

John’s practice focuses on land use approvals, and otherwise obtaining governmental permits, from state and local governments, through legislative, administrative, and judicial processes. He is experienced in the relevant areas affecting land such as the federal regulation of wetlands, the state regulation of Chesapeake Bay Preservation areas, problems in historic preservation, and related matters. He has represented Virginia local governments in boundary adjustment and other municipal matters. He has extensive background in local and state government administration.

John is an experienced litigator in both state and federal courts in a broad range of complex matters, and has appeared as counsel of record in, and has argued, numerous appeals to the Virginia Supreme Court and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

John is a 1968 graduate of Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with a degree in Political Science and History. He served as a United States Army Infantry Officer in Vietnam from 1970 to 1971. He is a 1974 graduate of the University of Virginia Law School. Upon graduation, he joined the United States Department of Justice in its Honors Program, where he worked for the Office of Policy and Planning, doing policy analyses for the Attorney General. He was assigned to the White House staff under President Gerald Ford, and served as the third-ranking official of that President’s Vietnam Era Clemency Program. He returned to the Justice Department specializing in criminal appeals, and argued numerous cases in federal Circuit Courts throughout the United States.

In September of 1977, John became Deputy County Attorney for Prince William County, Virginia, and in September of 1982 he became County Attorney. In both positions he was responsible for advising the Board of County Supervisors with respect to all matters, including land use, appearing before the Board, and was its chief litigator. He was principal legal advisor to the fourth largest jurisdiction in the Commonwealth, supervising an office of eight attorneys. He served as the President of the Prince William County Bar Association in 1987-88, and the same year was the President of the Local Government Attorneys of Virginia. He teaches extensively in planning and zoning, and local government law. Since going into private practice he has represented many clients in land use matters before the governing bodies of not less than two dozen Virginia jurisdictions.

John has written extensively in the area of land use and local government, and is the author of the principal Virginia text on Planning and Zoning in the Commonwealth.

John became an Owner in the firm of Hazel & Thomas, P.C., in July of 1989, and joined Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley, Emrich & Walsh as a Shareholder in November of 1999.

John is listed in “Best Lawyers in America” and “Who’s Who in America” and possesses Martindale-Hubbell’s highest Av rating, and has recently been identified as one of Virginia’s and Washington’s “Superlawyers.”

John is active in many community events and organizations. He is currently a member of the Board of Governors of the Virginia State Bar Section on the Education of Lawyers in Virginia.