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February 2019

William Sleeth III and Susan North Join Gordon & Rees as Partners in the Williamsburg Office

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani welcomes William Sleeth III and Susan Childers North as partners in the firm's recently opened Williamsburg, Virginia office. Sleeth will serve as the co-managing partner of the office with partner Ronald Giller.

Sleeth and North will join the firm's Employment, Health Care, Retail & Hospitality, and Estate & Trust Litigation practice groups. Sleeth will also serve as chair of the firm's Community Association Law practice.

Also joining the Williamsburg office are senior counsel Gregory Bean, and associate Brett Herbert. All attorneys were previously with LeClairRyan in Williamsburg, Virginia. Senior counsel Artin Avetisove (previously with LeClairRyan’s Los Angeles office) is moving with the team, and will join the firm’s Los Angeles office.

"The addition of this excellent group strongly complements our nationwide platform both by augmenting our footprint in Virginia, where we’ve maintained a presence since 2012, and by growing our national employment and commercial litigation groups," said Dion Cominos, Firmwide Managing Partner.  "They are first rate practitioners who are well known and respected in the region, and whose practices dovetail seamlessly with our own. We look forward to growing further both in Williamsburg and throughout the state of Virginia in the coming years."

William Sleeth III is a trial lawyer who represents businesses and individuals in a wide array of litigation matters in state and federal court throughout Virginia and the nation. He focuses his practice in the areas of estate litigation (will disputes, trust disputes, elder law disputes, and guardianship proceedings), retail and hospitality law (representing hotel chains, resorts, and restaurants), and in the field of community association representation (representing homeowners' associations, condominium associations, and developers in their general legal matters).

Sleeth has been recognized for numerous years by Super Lawyers Magazine in the field of Estate & Trust Litigation, and recognized as a “Top Lawyer” by Coastal Virginia Magazine. While at LeClairRyan, the firm named him team leader of the firm’s Estate and Trust Litigation Practice Area Team in 2015, at age 32, making him what is believed to be the then-youngest attorney to ever lead a practice area team at an Am Law 200 law firm. He and his team maintain extensive blogs on estate litigation and community association law.

Sleeth is admitted to practice in Virginia. He is a member of the Virginia State Bar and Virginia Bar Association, Virginia Peninsula Estate Planning Council, and Estate Planning Council of Richmond. He currently serves as the President of the Williamsburg Bar Association, is a member of the Fiduciary Litigation Committee of the American Bar Association, and is a member of the Community Associations Institute, Southeastern and Central Virginia Chapters.

Susan Childers North has been named one of Virginia’s "Top 50 Women Lawyers" in Virginia and one of Virginia’s Labor & Employment "Legal Elite." She also has been listed in Chambers USA, America’s Leading Business Lawyers in Labor & Employment Law, and recognized by Best Lawyers in America® in Employment Law.  North also teaches as an adjunct professor at the William & Mary School Law School. Her practice includes counseling, mediation, arbitration and litigation of a variety of employment issues, including sexual harassment, race and sex discrimination, age and disability discrimination and retaliation, as well as wage and hour and leave of absence and Family Medical Leave claims. North also drafts and litigates restrictive covenant agreements, including non-solicitation and covenant not to compete agreements. She also handles all aspects of employment law related litigation involving business torts and trade secrets. She has successfully defended Title VII and 42 USC Section 1981 discrimination class action claims and FLSA wage and hour collective action claims.

North has performed various training seminars and webinars on employment law related topics to management level and human resources professionals as well as to the general workforce. She provides diversity counseling and training for companies which includes conducting assessments/audits and developing and implementing diversity initiatives and programs.

North is admitted to practice in all Virginia and state and federal courts and in the United States Supreme Court. She is a member of the American Bar Association and the Williamsburg Bar Association. She is active in national and local diversity organizations, including the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), NAPABA-VA and the Virginia State Bar Diversity Conference. 

Gordon & Rees is a national litigation and business transactions firm with lawyers in offices across the United States. Our lawyers provide full service representation to public and private companies ranging from the Fortune 500 to start-ups. Founded in 1974, Gordon & Rees is recognized among the fastest growing and largest law firms in the country. Additionally, in 2018 Law360 ranked the firm among the top 40 largest U.S. firms and The American Lawyer ranked the firm among the top 45 on its Diversity Scorecard.

Gregory S. Bean
Brett C. Herbert
Susan Childers North
William W. Sleeth III



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