Her peers unanimously elected Cleo E. Powell, a 1982 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia, the court announced last week.
Powell stands with Chief Justice Donald Lemons (UVA Law Class of 1976) and future Chief Justice S. Bernard Goodwyn (UVA Law Class of 1986) in a 2015 photo. (Contributed photo)
Powell will make history Jan. 1, when she assumes her new post for a four-year term, becoming the first Black woman to serve as the commonwealth’s chief justice. She will succeed another UVA Law alumnus in the role, S. Bernard Goodwyn, a 1986 Law School graduate.
Another UVA alumnus, Leroy Hassell Sr., was the first Black male elected chief justice of Virginia in 2003, serving two four-year terms. Hassell, a former Lawn resident, earned his undergraduate degree in government from UVA in 1977.
Virginia’s General Assembly first elected Powell to the court as a justice in 2011, becoming the state’s first Black woman justice. She was re-elected in 2023. Before joining the Supreme Court, she served as a Court of Appeals judge, a judge for Virginia’s 12th Judicial Circuit Court and on the Chesterfield General District Court. According to the Virginia Bar, she is the only member of the Supreme Court to have served as a judge at every level of the state’s judicial branch.
Earlier in her career, Powell practiced in both the private and public sectors, including as corporate counsel for Virginia Power and as an assistant attorney general.
