THE FIRM

A CENTURY OF LOOKING FORWARD

For more than a century, McCandlish Lillard has been helping clients address today’s challenges and prepare for tomorrow’s. Building on this legacy, attorneys at McCandlish Lillard strive to provide effective and efficient legal representation that meets our clients’ needs and is consistent with the finest traditions of legal practice in the Commonwealth.

McCandlish Lillard traces its roots to 1908. Over the years, its lawyers have been involved in the growth of Northern Virginia, not only from a legal perspective, but in a wide variety of legal, civic and professional endeavors.

Throughout the firm’s history, McCandlish lawyers have dedicated themselves to anticipating tomorrow’s legal challenges. F. D. Richardson, the founder of the firm, began practicing law in the small town of Fairfax in 1908. Robert J. McCandlish, Jr. began clerking with F. D. Richardson in 1930 upon his graduation from the University of Maryland.

After attending law school in the evenings and graduating in 1934, McCandlish joined Richardson in the practice of law. In January 1942, F. D. Richardson and Robert J. McCandlish Jr. became partners and announced the new firm, Richardson & McCandlish, which soon became recognized as one of the preeminent providers of legal services in Northern Virginia.

From 1984 to 1995, the firm merged with and became the Northern Virginia office of a large regional law firm. In 1995, McCandlish Lillard was reestablished as an independent firm capable of providing a broad and diverse array of legal services. Today, with offices in Fairfax and Leesburg, we view ourselves as part of a complex and ever-changing world economy and a dynamic local economy.

What began in 1908 as one man’s practice in a very small town called Fairfax, has become a firm of more than twenty lawyers who practice through the Washington, DC metropolitan area. Despite these changes, McCandlish lawyers have revolutionized the practice of law. Our firm holds true to the spirit of its founders by adapting to the changing needs of clients and expanding its expertise in all areas where legal needs can be filled. Our history tells the story of a century of looking forward.

To read a more detailed history of our firm, click here (PDF).

McCandlish Lillard has epitomized the practice of law in Northern Virginia for over 110 years, but we also regularly practice in Maryland and Washington, D.C.

We practice daily in state courts throughout the Commonwealth (particularly the courts of Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax, Prince William and Loudoun Counties (and included cities and towns)), including the Supreme Court of Virginia and the Court of Appeals of Virginia.

Our trial lawyers also often practice in the federal courts of the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia and in the 4th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

McCandlish Lillard traces its roots to 1908. Over the years, its lawyers have been involved in the growth of Northern Virginia generally, not only from a legal perspective, but in a wide variety of legal, civic and professional endeavors. Throughout the firm’s history, McCandlish lawyers have dedicated themselves to anticipating tomorrow’s legal challenges.

Click here to read more about McCandlish’s history.

Thank you for your interest in a career with McCandlish Lillard.

Attorneys at McCandlish enjoy potential for advancement, significant client contact, cross-marketing, a collegial, stimulating and increasingly diverse practice environment, and a friendly workplace.

The firm is always on the lookout for more excellent attorneys, from senior principals to associates. If this type of opportunity and office culture appeal to you, we encourage you to explore the opportunities on this page.

In addition, the firm is looking for growth opportunities, and therefore we also seek qualified attorneys, or even groups, at various levels of experience and in numerous fields of practice, who have a reasonable or excellent amount of portable business, whether in an existing area that we practice or in a new area that could be beneficial to our clients, present and future.

Experience either in any of our existing practice areas or in any other practice area that might complement or enhance our existing practices would be of interest.

It is McCandlish Lillard’s policy to offer Equal Employment Opportunity to all its applicants and employees. Employment decisions shall be based on merit, qualifications, and competence. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, age, sexual orientation or status as a protected veteran.

Please Note: We are not accepting applications for our summer associate program at this time.

McCandlish Lillard has provided legal services in Northern Virginia since 1908, but its history is an active and evolving one.  Wherever possible, it has broadened its practice areas and welcomed outstanding lawyers through lateral hiring.  It has also relied on its Summer Associates Program to identify and hire bright young legal minds from among the best law schools in Virginia, Washington, D.C., and beyond.

The firm’s principals take the Summer Associates Program seriously, because we know that the search for the firm’s future principals begins here. In August and September of each year, the firm works closely with law school career and placement offices to select rising second year law students for on-campus interviews.

We also welcome applications from law schools where we are not conducting OCIs. At the conclusion of all interviews, the firm will invite a select few candidates to the firm’s Fairfax office for additional interviews.  Ultimately, the firm typically hires two or three candidates as Summer Associates.

The chief purpose of the Summer Associate Program is to present Summer Associates with a true experience of firm life.  Most importantly, this means that Summer Associates will go to Court with firm attorneys, attend depositions, sit in on complex business transactions, participate in “brainstorming” sessions, and receive real, billable research assignments.  In addition, it includes frequent lunches with the firm’s lawyers and staff, to learn more about who we are and let us learn more about you – and to relax and enjoy a little!

The firm believes that its Summer Associates are not looking to be wooed, wined and dined, but are searching for an accurate picture of the law firm, its lawyers and its practice areas.  Only in this fashion can a Summer Associate truly decide if McCandlish Lillard is the right place to begin, fulfill, and hopefully end, his or her legal career.  Similarly, McCandlish Lillard can properly assess whether a Summer Associate is a good fit for the firm. We have found that the mutual learning process takes time and prefer Summer Associates who will commit to at least 8 weeks at the firm.

Summer Associates are not pigeonholed as “transactional” or “litigation” clerks.  They are given a wide breadth of assignments, and encouraged to work and interact with as many of the firm’s attorneys as possible. But the work load is monitored and is not dispensed frivolously.

Each Summer Associate will have a mentor – an existing attorney at the firm — who will take responsibility for monitoring and regulating the Summer Associate’s work, helping with billing, providing practical “how to” advice and “running interference” for the Summer Associate if and when needed, and simply being “on call” to answer whatever questions on firm life might arise.

Hopefully, by the end of the summer, Summer Associates not only will be informed enough to decide whether McCandlish Lillard is right for them, but, will also be on their way to deciding what type of law they prefer to practice.

McCandlish Lillard believes that its Summer Associates program works.  A majority of our associates are typically former participants in the program.   If interested, please see your placement office about applying for an OCI with the firm or, if we are not interviewing at your law school you are welcome to submit a direct application to the firm, c/o Recruiting Coordinator.

We look forward to meeting with you, whether on campus or by direct interview at our offices — or both!  Thanks for taking the time to read this summary, and thanks for your interest in McCandlish Lillard.

The Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct require all Virginia lawyers to “be mindful of deficiencies in the administration of justice and of the fact that the poor, and sometimes persons who are not poor, cannot afford adequate legal assistance.” McCandlish Lillard takes that directive very seriously.

We encourage, and indeed require, our attorneys to perform pro bono legal work, whether it’s serving one needy client, or helping many through our contributions to worthy projects like Legal Services of Northern Virginia, the Embry Rucker Community Shelter, or Habitat for Humanity.

Our attorneys are active in the communities in which they live and work. We are Rotarians, Lions, and Knights of Columbus. We are trustees of charitable and educational foundations, and have served on the Executive Committee of the National Capital Area Boy Scouts of America, the Council of the Virginia Historical Society, and the Arts Council of Fairfax County.

We have served on the boards of the George C. Marshall International Center and Oatlands Plantation in Loudoun County, the Claude Moore Charitable Foundation, the City of Fairfax and the Fairfax County Chambers of Commerce, the Virginia Bar Association, Virginia State Bar and the Loudoun and Fairfax Bar Associations, the Community Foundation of Northern Virginia, Cherry Blossom Breast Cancer Foundation, Northern Virginia chapter of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Salvation Army, Fair Lakes Rotary Club, the Friends of Oakton Library, Brain Injury Services, and the Dulles Area Transportation Association, among many others.

We believe community service and pro bono activities make us better lawyers and better people.