FACULTY
David M. Lee, Newport News Public Defender / Newport News
Corinne J. Magee, The Magee Law Firm, PLLC / McLean
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
David M. Lee, Newport News Public Defender / Newport News
David M. Lee earned his B.A. from Colgate University in 1987, his J.D. from William and Mary in 1994, and went into practice as a criminal defense attorney shortly thereafter. Following his term as president of the Williamsburg Bar Association, he developed his teaching skills coaching the Jamestown High School Mock Trial Team, turning a group of (predominantly) young women into fearsome warriors. Over the course of four years his teams won the state championship on two occasions and his students earned Best Attorney awards on two others. He served on the VACDL Board from 2007-2013 and served as President in 2012. He joined the Indigent Defense Commission in 2013 and presently manages the Juvenile trial team in Newport News, where he specializes in mandatory life cases. He has previously taught MCLE-approved classes on Brady and exculpatory evidence as well as legal tools for pretrial investigations.
Corinne J. Magee, The Magee Law Firm, PLLC / McLean
A native Minnesotan and undergraduate of the University of Minnesota, Corinne Magee came to the Washington, DC, area in 1972 to work for Congressman William Frenzel. She later worked as Research Director of the Legislature of Michigan’s Washington, DC, Office, where her primary responsibility was to coordinate federal and state legislation.
In 1979 Ms. Magee graduated with honors from the National Law Center at the George Washington University. She and her husband then moved back to his native state of Rhode Island, where she worked as a staff attorney for the Rhode Island Supreme Court, reviewing cases and preparing pre-hearing memoranda for the justices.
In 1981 Ms. Magee and her husband returned to Northern Virginia, where she became an Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney in Fairfax County. In 1987 she left the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office, and went into solo practice, focusing on criminal defense. In 2003 she and her husband created the Magee Law Firm in McLean, Virginia, where she is a principal.
Ms. Magee is an active member of the Fairfax County Bar Association, where she previously chaired the Criminal Practice Section for twelve years, and has been actively involved in the 8th grade court tours program from its inception. She has written several mock trial scripts. She is past-president of the McLean Bar Association and of the Virginia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (VACDL), and serves on the board of directors of both organizations. She regularly teaches continuing legal education (CLE) courses for the Fairfax Bar Association, VACDL, The Virginia Trial Lawyers Association (VTLA), Virginia CLE®, and the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission, where she has taught “Trial of Adult Misdemeanors” for the Court-Appointed Certification Course for the first several years after its creation. Ms. Magee has also taught CLE courses for a number of other bar associations and organizations. In 2007 Ms. Magee was recognized as one of Virginia's Leaders in the Law by Virginia Lawyers Weekly. She has also been recognized as a Virginia Super Lawyer and a Top Lawyer in Virginia. Ms. Magee has authored an article, "When Juries Punish Too Much; Virginia's Sentencing System Scares Criminal Defendants Away From Trial," 27 Legal Times 27 (March 22, 2004), has written the Fairfax Criminal Practice Manual (2006), distributed by the Fairfax Bar Association, and is in the process of updating that publication. She is also co-editor of the Virginia CLE® publication Defending Criminal Cases in Virginia.