With three decades of experience as both a litigator and a mediator, Cheryl Graham is today one of the region’s most accomplished independent divorce lawyers. Indeed, she is perhaps the top matrimonial attorney in Loudoun County and Leesburg, where her practice is based. Her early record - she was named partner of a prominent firm before the age of 35, and in the last several years has built her own practice - gave her stature and name recognition relatively early in her career. Graham - high energy, fast-thinking, cheerful - is known as both a creative problem solver and, when necessary, a tough and to-the-mat litigator, peers say.

Growing up as the eldest daughter of four children in Fairfax, friends say Graham possessed a rare drive and maturity, and Graham herself agrees. “I was thinking about being a professional - a doctor or a lawyer - in grade school, and I worked hard at it,” she says. Indeed, she was an exceptional student, and possessed an academic’s precision from an early age. She considered becoming a college professor, but instead went straight to law school after receiving a degree in Government and Politics from George Mason University. She joined a prominent matrimonial firm, where “I was in court my first month on the job.” Later, she was named a partner. Throughout that time she was thrust into the courtroom, giving her early and valuable litigation experience. “I’ve been very fortunate to have worked with the best of the best,” says Graham today.

More than ten years ago, Graham launched a practice with another well known Northern Virginia practitioner, and in January 2010 she launched her own practice in downtown Leesburg and McLean, VA. Her practice, she says, “covers the full spectrum of a client’s divorce law needs” - from high-stakes litigation to mediation and other alternate dispute resolution, such as collaborative divorce. More recently Graham is handling the cases of highly compensated executives and business owners. She and her husband, the owner of a successful contracting business, have three daughters; they live in Leesburg.