W&M Law alumni now helm both U.S. attorney's offices in Virginia
Citizen lawyers: Thomas T. Cullen J.D. '04 (left) is the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, and Zachary Terwilliger J.D. '07 is the interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
In news from the Justice Department yesterday, Attorney General Jeff Sessions appointed William & Mary Law School alumnus Zachary Terwilliger J.D. ’07 as interim U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Both of Virginia’s U.S. attorney’s offices are now led by W&M Law School alumni. Thomas T. Cullen J.D. ‘04 was formally sworn in earlier this month as the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia.
"William & Mary Law School is very proud of Thomas Cullen and Zach Terwilliger," said W&M Law School Dean Davison M. Douglas. "Their service as United States Attorney is squarely within the William & Mary tradition of training our students to become citizen lawyers."
Following graduation from William & Mary Law School, where he was inducted into Order of the Coif, Cullen clerked for U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne in the Eastern District of Virginia and then for Judge Roger L. Gregory, now chief judge of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. He later served as an assistant U.S. attorney in Charlotte, North Carolina, and as the deputy criminal chief and an assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District of Virginia. Prior to his current appointment, he practiced law at Woods Rogers in Roanoke, Virginia.
Terwilliger began his association with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Virginia as an intern in 1999 and later worked there as a summer law clerk during law school. After earning his J.D. at William & Mary, where he was inducted into Order of the Coif, he clerked for U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore in the Southern District of Florida. He has served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia and, most recently, as an associate deputy attorney general and as chief of staff for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.
