Legal Elite 2023: Alternative Dispute Resolution Q&A

Title: Owner and CEO

Education: Bachelor’s degree, Denison University; law degree, University of Virginia

Family: Husband, Paul Hammond; sons Matthew and John Hammond

Most recent book read: “West with Giraffes,” by Lynda Rutledge

Who is your dream client? Myself

What insights from your time on the Henrico Circuit Court bench have you taken into private practice? Everyone is different, and people don’t see things or feel things the same way. And even though we are different, we all want to be respected and understood. A jury trial is an exceptional process where strangers come together to participate in democracy. I hope we preserve this.

What do you teach as a faculty member of the National Drug Court Institute? We teach best practices for treatment courts, based on national research that is continuously updated. There are over 4,000 treatment courts in the U.S. today, all trying to improve. When we go on-site and work with drug court teams, it is always rewarding. I think their success is based on the cross-disciplinary makeup of the teams. Normally you would not have the prosecutor, clinician, social worker, probation officer, defense attorney and judge working on one case together. This kind of cross-pollination works wonders. 

Check out the rest of the 2023 Legal Elite.