A resident of Northern Virginia since her military family relocated to the area when she was a teenager, Ms. Piper is a graduate of The Madeira School, Wellesley College, and the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary. Ms. Piper’s diverse experience from being involved with the Fairfax and Loudoun County Circuit Courts, the DC Superior Court, and various adoption and social service agencies in the greater Boston and DC Metropolitan areas helped her develop a strong passion for family law.
Ms. Piper has been practicing family law since 2001. She has handled equitable distribution, support and custody matters in the Circuit Courts and Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts throughout Northern Virginia and has appeared on brief before the Virginia Court of Appeals.
Ms. Piper has a passion for helping clients navigate issues of child custody and visitation, with the goal of helping them to move forward and co-parent effectively. If litigation becomes necessary, she works with experts in multiple disciplines to advocate for her clients, and prepares clients and witnesses to present evidence at trial. Ms. Piper has served as a Guardian ad litem for children, and believes that serving in that capacity in cases gives her a different perspective in custody and visitation matters.
Ms. Piper’s practical approach to solving family law problems helps clients achieve a fair, equitable, and prompt resolution. Because of her previous experience working with business owners in corporate administration and transactions, she appreciates the constraints on clients’ time and resources and she is conscientious of the effect of litigation on those resources. Although Ms. Piper enjoys assisting clients in the process of reaching consensus, she is skilled at balancing the collaborative nature of that process with litigation, which sometimes becomes necessary when there are difficult or sensitive issues. Ms. Piper’s previous experience with business, real estate and contested estate matters gives her a familiarity with those issues not found in many of her contemporaries.
Ms. Piper has honed her experience in those areas of family law in which she is particularly interested--military family issues, and retirement benefits. As an attorney member of EX-POSE, an organization of former spouses of service members, Ms. Piper helps clients evaluate the nature of their interests in military benefits, and assists them in navigating this difficult area of the law in order to best protect their rights. She has experience in complex issues of both government and private sector retirement plans, and enjoys solving the challenges that clients can sometimes face in effectuating the division of these benefits.
Ms. Piper, listed in the Virginia Super Lawyers Top 50 Women and Top 100 in 2015, 2017 through 2020, and 2021, has been selected as a Virginia Super Lawyer or Rising Star each year since 2009. She has been named to the Legal Elite list by Virginia Business since 2013. She has been listed as a top domestic relations attorney by both Northern Virginia Magazine and Arlington Magazine. Ms. Piper served on the Board of Directors of the Northern Virginia chapter of the Virginia Women Attorneys Association for many years, as President from 2017-2018. She is a member of the family law sections of the Virginia State Bar, Fairfax Bar Association and Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. She has taught classes on the discovery process at the Vienna Women's Center. She attended the American Bar Association’s Family Law Trial Advocacy Institute in 2011.
Areas of Practice
Certified Legal Specialties
- Certified as a Guardian ad litem for children by the Supreme Court of Virginia through 2020
Bar Admissions
Education
- The College of William and Mary, Marshall-Wythe School of Law, Williamsburg, Virginia
- J.D. - 2001
- Law Journal: Journal of Women & The Law, 2000 - 2001
- Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
- B.A.
- Major: International Relations
- Major: French Cultural Studies
Classes/Seminars
- Discovery Process, Vienna Women's Center, 2011 - 2013
Honors and Awards
- Best Lawyers in America, 2019-present
- Virginia SuperLawyers, 2014-2024
- Virginia Top 50 Women, Virginia Top 100 (SuperLawyers), 2017 - 2024
- Northern Virginia Magazine Top Lawyers, 2016 - 2017
- Virginia Legal Elite, 2013 – 2023
- Arlington Magazine Top Lawyer 2021
Professional Associations and Memberships
- Virginia Women Attorneys Association, Northern Virginia Chapter, Past President
- Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, Family Law Section
- Fairfax Bar Association, Family Law Section
- Virginia State Bar, Family Law Section
- Ex-Pose
