DISTRICT 1

Kathy Poindexter

I live and have established my law office in Bon Air, Virginia (Chesterfield County) and practice criminal defense work all over the Commonwealth of Virginia, but primarily the Richmond-Metropolitan area.  Having graduated from University of Richmond’s, T.C. Williams School of Law in 2003, I have practiced law for over 20 years and am licensed in both Virginia and North Carolina.  Earlier in my career, I served as a law clerk and attorney in several civil practices, but in 2005, joined the Indigent Defense Commission’s Public Defenders Office for the City of Richmond.  There, I served as a senior supervising assistant public defender.  In 2010, I opened my own law firm, Davenport & Poindexter, P.C., where I was partnered in practice until 2013. In 2013, I ventured out into solo-practice and have been working independently since then d/b/a Katherine E. Poindexter, P.C.

As a private bar member, I continue to accept court-appointed cases and offer pro bono and low-bono (sliding scale) services to our indigent community, as I believe access to a zealous defense in criminal courts should not be a privilege enjoyed only by the wealthy.  I also volunteer my time teaching “Know Your Rights” seminars to children at Rise for Youth, patrons of REAL Life, and to other organizations where the need arises. Additionally, I have been a member of the Robert E. Shepherd Juvenile Law and Education Conference Planning Committee since 2013 and in that capacity, assist in developing conference content for Juvenile and Education Law practitioners in attendance.  I am particularly proud of the work that I do as a volunteer at the Chesterfield County N.A.A.C.P. (Branch# 7120), as Chair of the Legal Redress Committee.  Through that role, I field complaints from our community members related to any potential act of discrimination through the court system, education system, housing systems, and beyond.  Where we can help, we do, and where we cannot, we refer complainants to attorneys that can.

While the practice of criminal law is my truest calling, I believe as attorneys that we are uniquely positioned – and should exercise this position – to engage in the political process, to hold our elected officials accountable and to do what we can to ensure our community’s civil rights are safeguarded.  To that end, I attempt to stay in contact with my state House of Delegate and Senate-elected officials, to share with them what is occurring in our courtrooms and have even been a campaign director for a Progressive Commonwealth’s Attorney candidate (Scott Miles for Chesterfield County Commonwealth’s Attorney).

I would be honored to serve a second term as the District 1 VACDL representative and would seek to grow our association, to improve engagement among the attorneys we represent, and to work tirelessly to be a loud voice for progress, compassion and fairness across this Commonwealth.

DISTRICT 2

Hugh E. "Teddy" Black, III

        My name is Hugh E. “Teddy” Black, III and I am seeking election to the VACDL Board representing District 2.

         I have been practicing law since 1993 in the Tidewater area.  I am a native of Chesapeake, Virginia where my office of Black & Black, P.C. is located.  I graduated from Old Dominion University and Ohio Northern University School of Law.  I have the privilege of practicing with my daughter, Brittany R. Black.  Our practice is exclusively criminal and traffic defense. 

         I am a lifetime member of the VACDL as well as the NACDL.

DISTRICT 7

Patricia Bolen

    Patricia Bolen is the head public defender in the Fredericksburg Office of the Public Defender, where she has worked in various roles since August of 2017. Originally from the Boston area, she graduated from Michigan University College of Law in 2005 and Cornell in 1998. She previously worked as an assistant public defender for the 8^th and 13^th circuits in South Carolina. Patricia started out as a prosecutor, but quickly learned that her interests were much more closely aligned with defense work. In SC as well as VA, she has tried juries from misdemeanors to murders. She currently works closely with the area’s regional Behavioral Health Docket and Recovery Courts, and was part of the team that created a GDC-level Therapeutic Docket for the City of Fredericksburg. Patricia is also on the board of FAHASS, a local non-profit that provides medical and housing needs, volunteers with youth organizations including scouts, and has been serving on the VACDL board for the past few years. Patricia and her family, including 3 school-age children and two rescue hounds, live in Fredericksburg.

DISTRICT 11

Blake Woloson

Blake Woloson is a solo practitioner in Woodbridge, Virginia focusing on criminal law throughout Northern Virginia. He has been in practice for over 35 years handling over 50 jury trials in his career, including two murder acquittals. He started his own practice in 2009 primarily dealing with indigent clients charged with serious felony matters.

Mr. Woloson graduated from The University of Richmond in 1985 and George Mason University Law School in 1988. He is on the Board of Directors for the VACDL where he also serves as Judicial Appointments Committee Chairman. He currently serves on the Prince William Bar Association’s Judicial Screening Committee. He was the past Vice-Chair of the Fairfax Bar Association’s Criminal Practice Section. He was named the Arthur von Keller Pro Bono Attorney of the Year by the Prince William County Bar Association in 2023 for his work with local high schools for the “So You’re 18” program. He helped start and acts as a moderator for the Northern Virginia Criminal Defenses List Serve. He has lectured at a variety of CLE’s for the VACDL, Fairfax Bar Association Criminal Law Section and the Prince William County Bar Association.

In his spare time, Mr. Woloson is an avid motorcyclist, which he combines with his passion for history by traveling to historic sites throughout the Commonwealth and has now started an obsession with pickleball.

AT LARGE SEATS 2 and 3   (2 CANDIDATES WILL BE SELECTED)

Candidates are listed in alphabetical order. Please review all candidate statements and be sure to vote for 2 individual candidates on the ballot

André A. Hakes

A 1996 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, André Aris Hakes has almost 30 years experience as a champion of the rights and civil liberties of Virginians accused of criminal offenses. As a law student, Ms. Hakes obtained valuable prosecutorial experience in several local jurisdictions before establishing herself in private practice. During her early years of practice, Ms. Hakes taught in police education classes on several occasions at the Central Shenandoah Criminal Justice Training Center. Ms. Hakes has defended clients on charges ranging from DUI to first degree murder. Ms. Hakes has represented clients in federal and state courts in many local jurisdictions, including the Cities of Charlottesville and Waynesboro, and the Counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Greene, Harrisonburg, Louisa, Madison, Nelson, Orange and Rockingham. Ms. Hakes served as a Special Justice for years hearing mental health commitment cases in the prison system. 

Ms. Hakes has been with Tucker, Griffin, Barnes in Charlottesville since 1998, most of those years as a partner.  She has been a member of the Board of Directors of several bar associations including the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association and the Virginia Equity Bar Association and has served on the board of Equity Virginia and the ACLU of Virginia. She also served as President of the VACDL in 2022. She is universally admired as a criminal defense attorney by all who have worked with her or against her. She likes to read, play guitar, go fishing, and restore classic cars.

Bradley R. Haywood

Bradley R. Haywood has practiced criminal defense in Virginia for over 21 years, starting as an Assistant Public Defender in Alexandria shortly after graduating from law school. In December of 2011, Brad joined Sheldon, Flood & Haywood, where he remained until he was named Chief Public Defender for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church in 2017. During his tenure as Chief Public Defender, the Arlington office became a statewide leader in community engagement and system change advocacy, playing a substantial role in reshaping the Arlington bench, reforming prosecution practices, creating a model behavioral health docket, demanding (and earning) respect for zealous defense practice, and improving funding, staffing and diversity in indigent defense. Along those lines, the Arlington office became the first public defender's office in Virginia to receive a county-funded support staffer, and later the first with a county-funded attorney position.

Over the past 10 years in particular, Brad has developed a reputation as an intensely zealous and fearless trial attorney. His creative and active motions practice has also led to numerous high-profile appeals, including questions of first-impression regarding Virginia's probation reform statute as well as 19.2-271.6, permitting mental health evidence at trial to negate intent, which was also a recent and historic reform to Virginia's criminal code.

Reform may indeed what Brad is best known for, having founded Justice Forward Virginia, the leading criminal justice reform advocacy organization in the Commonwealth, and serving as its Executive Director until December of 2022. Brad remains a board member and occasional lobbyist for the organization.

Since its inception in 2017, Justice Forward has drafted and led advocacy efforts which resulted in the passage of nearly two-dozen reform bills in the Virginia General Assembly, including the two mentioned above, as well as historic limits on pretextual policing practices, repeal of mandatory jury sentencing, creating "degrees" of robbery, repeal of the petit larceny third statute, allowing for ex parte funding requests, and many others. Justice Forward also was among the core advocacy groups which helped legalize marijuana, abolish the death penalty, and implement enhanced earned sentence credits. These accomplishments led Virginia Lawyers Weekly to remark that “it is not hyperbole to say that Bradley R. Haywood has changed the entire legal landscape in Virginia. As the founder of Justice Forward Virginia, he revolutionized the criminal justice reform movement throughout the Commonwealth.” 

It should be noted that Justice Forward's very most loyal, reliable and long-standing advocacy ally is none other than the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. VACDL has co-sponsored every single Justice Forward lobby day, from the very first in January of 2018, when Brad, Danielle Payne and Monica Reid (NACDL) spent many hours organizing and promoting the event, and many, many more hours scheduling and rescheduling meetings with legislators in the Virginia General Assembly.

Brad is the 2021 recipient of the Arlington County NAACP's Charles P. Monroe Civil Rights Award, and a member of the 2022 class of Leaders in the Law. Brad has written over a dozen articles for publications such as the Washington Post, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Inquest, the Columbia Human Rights Law Review, and the Richmond Public Interest Law Review, which in 2023 published "Ending Race-Based Pretextual Stops: Strategies For Eliminating America's Most Egregious Police Practice," discussing one of Justice Forward’s foremost legislative accomplishments. Brad is a frequent speaker and CLE presenter, including at VACDL's Fall CLE in 2023. 

Brad is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan (BA, Philosophy) and a considerably-less-proud graduate of Columbia Law School. He lives in Arlington, VA with his two dogs, Burt and Jake, and drives a manual transmission Ford Mustang.

Glen Franklin Koontz

Glen Franklin Koontz is the founder and principal of KOONTZ | P.C., a law firm with offices in Berryville and Martinsville. Over the past thirty-nine (39) years, Glen Koontz has represented criminal defendant clients primarily in Virginia, but also in California, Maryland, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Glen Koontz was a member of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers Board of Directors from 2013-2020. During his time on the Board of Directors, he served on the Continuing Legal Education, Amicus, JIRC, Nominations, and Judicial Appointments Committees. He also served as VACDL Secretary from 2015-2018, and as VACDL President from 2019-2020.

Shawn Stout

My name is Shawn Stout, and I am interested in returning to the VACDL Board of Directors as one of the at-large representatives. I have been a member of VACDL since my admission to the VSB, and I previously served as the VACDL District 11 Representative from 2015 to 2024. In short, I should be on the board because it's more fun when I am there. I am also a radical believer, a bad ass trial lawyer, and very efficient with Robert's Rules of Order. 

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