Ms. Vanessa Ann Richardson, Attorney

You can take the girl out of the South, but you can't take the South out of the girl! Born inGeorgetown, South Carolina, Vanessa Ann Richardson was barely six months old when her family relocated to New York City. She attended Martin L. King, Jr. High School and it was there that her interest in the legal system began to flourish. A member of its Mock Trial team, it was during her first mock trial experience before a New York Supreme Court judge in which he told her that she should pick another profession because her performance was less than stellar. Heartbroken but not defeated, she worked hard and the following year she appeared before the same judge in the State semi-finals. The judge remembered her and openly apologized to her after he watched a much-improved determined and confident future litigator.

Vanessa graduated from John Jay College of Criminal Justice with a B.S. in Criminal Justice in 1992. During her detour from her legal career, Vanessa worked as an assistant account executive for a Madison Avenue entertainment advertising house, but was nagged by her interest in all of its legal issues: copyrights, contracts, etc. She enrolled in law school at Capital University Law School in Columbus, Ohio.

While attending law school, Vanessa was a member the Mock Trial Team and actively participated in community service programs, her favorites being Habitat for Humanity, the March of Dimes and the Street Law Program, in which law students teach criminal law to public school students. During her second year at law school, Vanessa became President of the Black Law Student Association. She enhanced her legal knowledge by interning for one of Columbus ' top-ranked law firm Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter in which her duties included research and writing briefs, motions and trial preparation. The following year, Vanessa became a law clerk at the Franklin County Public Defender's office felony division, where she handled arraignment hearings, interviewed inmates, prepared motions for judicial release and performed legal research; all while she handled cases as a student lawyer for Capital University Law School Legal Clinic, which provides free legal assistance to people unable to afford legal counsel. She also completed the specialized program in employment law in which she received her Employment Law Certificate.

Immediately upon graduation, Vanessa returned to her birthplace of Georgetown. She began working for the Horry County Public Defender's office in Conway, S.C. and then became its court-appointed Mitigation Specialist on two of its high-profile death penalty cases. While performing those duties, Vanessa joined the Bell Legal Group in its Special Projects Division and ultimately became a member of its trial team.

Currently, Vanessa mainly handles products liability cases, as well as medical malpractice and jail/police misconduct cases. Continuing in her community service activities, Vanessa is troop leader of her daughter's Girl Scout Troop 113.