Schneck, Thomas J.

Kristie Haynes has been practicing for more than twelve years in the area of complex commercial litigation, representing plaintiffs and defendants on a wide variety of business matters. When she began her practice in 1997 with the Washington DC office of Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur, she was immediately immersed into a five month long out-of-state breach of contract jury trial with a team of lawyers, resulting in a multi-million dollar verdict for the firm's client. This unique opportunity so early in her practice provided a strong foundation of knowledge and experience which has served her well throughout her litigation career.

While in DC practicing with the firms of Porter Wright and later Slavit & Gill, Ms. Haynes continued to represent the interests of her firms' clients with passion and vigor, routinely appearing before the state and federal courts of Virginia and elsewhere and working in such substantive areas as federal and state racketeering, antitrust, securities, commercial construction, trade dress, trademarks and copyrights, business torts, professional liability and commercial landlord/tenant matters. She "cut her eyeteeth" in the challenging "Rocket Docket" practice and procedures of the Alexandria Division of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and the Fairfax County Circuit Court, where motions are frequently fully briefed and argued in one to two weeks and cases are handled, start to finish, in less than a year. In this environment, Ms. Haynes quickly learned how to successfully manage the pressures and demands of a fast-paced, aggressive litigation practice. Among other cases she handled during this period of her career, Ms. Haynes secured an injunction after a bench trial on a copyright infringement claim, and in another, she obtained a virtually unprecedented six month stay of the litigation in federal court as to a corporate director where the corporation had filed bankruptcy.

Having grown up in Richmond, Ms. Haynes decided to move back home and began practicing in 2004 with the litigation group at Thompson, Smithers, Newman, Wade & Childress and later Childress, Gould & Russell as an associate. She became a principal with McSweeney, Crump, Childress and Temple in 2007 and was promoted to equity partner in January 2010.

Although she continues to handle an array of business matters for her clients, in recent years Ms. Haynes' practice has gravitated to two main substantive areas: professional liability and commercial construction. Ms. Haynes routinely defends the interests of lawyers, accountants and other professionals throughout the state and nationwide. In 2009, Ms. Haynes participated in a two week, three-count accounting malpractice jury trial in South Carolina. At the close of plaintiffs' evidence, Ms. Haynes argued a lengthy directed verdict motion to the Court, resulting in a successful ruling which dismissed two of the three counts. The case promptly settled thereafter for a mere fraction of the claim. Ms. Haynes also recently settled, on mutually beneficial terms, an attorney malpractice matter pending out of state in which she secured favorable rulings through motions practice to diminish a multi-count counterclaim down to almost nothing. Since these professional-based cases often arise in the context of complex, multi-party litigation, such as class action securities fraud, Ms. Haynes and her colleagues are adept at navigating the multitude of intricate legal and factual issues that routinely develop.

Ms. Haynes has represented her construction clients on an extensive assortment of contract and negligence based claims, and is well-versed in the nuances of Virginia construction law and the requirements of recording and enforcing mechanic's liens. On behalf of one such client who had been sued in federal court for more than a hundred thousand dollars in damages arising from a construction contract, Ms. Haynes pursued aggressive motions practice and filed an extensive counterclaim and, as a direct result, secured a settlement which called for a complete walk-away without any payment at all by her client. Conversely, Ms. Haynes has facilitated her clients obtaining upwards of millions of dollars in monies due for labor performed on construction contracts.

Armed with this breadth of litigation experience, Ms. Haynes is also able to effectively advise clients on a variety of corporate matters with the goal of avoiding litigation. Ms. Haynes is passionate about the dilemmas her clients face. She prides herself on providing efficient and high-quality service to her clients in a timely manner.

Ms. Haynes has been recognized as a "Rising Star" in Professional Liability Defense in Virginia Super Lawyers for 2008, 2009 and 2010 and by Virginia Business Magazine as one of Virginia's "Legal Elite" (in the Young Lawyers category) in 2007 and 2009.