Dave, Mychael R.

E. Wayne Powell is a 1972 Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Richmond, Virginia. After receiving a double degree in Spanish and French, Mr. Powell received his Master of Arts degree in 1973 from the University of Wisconsin's Madison campus with a specialization in Latin American studies. His knowledge of these and other languages has enhanced his ability to practice in the US and internationally.

Mr. Powell served for thirty (30) years as a Reserve and Active Duty Army officer. He was awarded the Legion of Merit Medal when he retired as a Colonel from active duty in July 2002 after mobilization following the attacks of September 11, 2001.

Mr. Powell received his J.D. degree from the T. C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond in 1980, and, after serving as a Staff Clerk to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia, he has spent the majority of his more than 28 years of practice as a trial lawyer, qualified to practice before all state, Superior and Federal courts in the District of Columbia and Virginia, up to and including the Supreme Court of the United States.

His trial practice has included nine (9) years of service for the Commonwealth of Virginia as an Assistant Attorney General and a Deputy Commissioner at the Virginia Worker's Compensation Commission, presiding over the trials involving hundreds of worker's compensation claims.

Mr. Powell's private practice includes almost a decade as a trial attorney and managing attorney primarily defending major claims for a one of the nation's major insurers, and most of the last decade as a trial attorney representing injured workers and employers before the Virginia Worker's Compensation Commission, injured persons in civil lawsuits, and defendants in criminal and traffic courts. He has tried more than 50 complex civil and criminal trials to verdict in his career, and has several times successfully appealed cases before the Virginia Court of Appeals, the Virginia Supreme Court, and before Judges of two of the Federal Circuits.

As president of the firm since 1999, Mr. Powell has overseen the expansion of the firm's involvement with litigation and legal representation throughout Virginia, nationwide and internationally, and he has been retained as a consulting attorney for the Embassy of Mexico in Washington, D.C since 2004.