Carolé Collier Krogmann is today one of Northern Virginia’s leading divorce lawyers, with broad experience and a record of constructive and effective representation. Now in the prime of her career, Krogmann brings an outward grace and an inner toughness to her work - a combination found usually in older good lawyers - and has worked with some of the state’s better litigators and family-law specialists. To a remarkable degree she lost little professional momentum since moving to Northern Virginia from the Tidewater region in 2007. Today she is a name partner at Masterman Krogmann, the McLean, Va.-based divorce boutique led by David Masterman, one of the leading divorce litigators in the DC metro area. Clients will recognize quickly that Krogmann - focused, organized, and cheerful - is a constructive influence, both empathizing with her clients - yet able to identify her clients’ problems.

In many respects Krogmann is a true product of the Norfolk-Virginia Beach area - a Norfolk native from a stable family with Christian values and a tradition of serving in the U.S. Armed Forces. “You’d be surprised, with people there from all over, being a Norfolk native was almost rare,” she says. Both her grandfathers served in the Navy, and her parents were high school sweethearts. They still live in the Norfolk house where Carolé Collier grew up. She attended Greenbrier Christian Academy, where her mother taught, in nearby Chesapeake, and received a scholarship to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. She excelled in history, speech, government and theatre, while majoring in English - all good preparation for the law. “The fact is I made sure college was a path to law school. I worked at it.” She adds, “I planned on succeeding. I wouldn’t allow failure to be an option for me.” She entered Regent School of Law in Virginia Beach, allowing her to live at home. Regent, of course, is a relative newcomer among law schools. Over the years, the school has attracted a broad and talented faculty, including New York family lawyer Lynne Marie Kohm and Randy Singer, former head of litigation at the Norfolk firm of Willcox & Savage. Krogmann says both were great influences who “helped put a fire in my belly for the courtroom.”

In 2002 she was recruited by litigator Douglas Davis and his Chesapeake-based practice, which had a range of specialties and a strong base of business clients. More senior lawyers, including Davis, encouraged her to “take and run with cases” - most of them matrimonial cases, experience that laid the groundwork for her career today. She built the firm’s family law practice; when she was named partner in 2006, the firm became Davis, Couch and Collier. The same year, when a colleague introduced her future husband, Arlington-based petroleum landman John Krogmann, Carolé Collier had some choices to make, and career risks to take as well - but Regent’s Kohm, longtime friends with Masterman, stepped in and referred the young Krogmann as she explored opportunities in Northern Virginia. In her first few years she established herself as a capable, nuts-and-bolts professional who has well complemented the hard-charging Masterman. Their practice was one of the few to grow through the economic downturn, aided in part by the strong Northern Virginia economy. What’s more, Krogmann and her husband have since had two children (one three months’ premature; she’s fine today), making Krogmann’s steady career development all the more remarkable.

Today Krogmann is handling a high volume of custody trials and settlement conferences, a productive and practical lawyer who, colleagues say, seems to relish a good battle more than she lets on. Krogmann and her husband John are “huge football fans” and doting parents of their children. They live in North Arlington.