Court of Appeals Judge to Deliver ASL Commencement Address

Grundy, VA (April 29, 2019) – Virginia Court of Appeals Judge Rossie David Alston, Jr. will be the commencement speaker at the Appalachian School of Law, May 4.

Commencement exercises are planned to begin at 11 a.m. and will be held in the gymnasium at Riverview Elementary-Middle School.

Alston has served on the Virginia Court of Appeals since February 2009. He had served as Chief Judge of the Circuit Court of Prince William County since 2001.He also served as Judge of the Prince William Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

Alston attended Averett College (now Averett University) and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1979. Upon graduating from Averett College, he graduated from North Carolina Central University School of Law with a Juris Doctorate cum laude and was ranked fifth in his graduating class in 1982. While at the law school he served as an editor of the North Carolina Central Law Journal and was a member of the national competition Moot Court Teams and Client Counseling Teams.

Upon passing the Virginia Bar Examination in 1982, he began work with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D. C. In 1984, he accepted a position as a staff attorney with the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation. In 1985, Alston became a member of the District of Columbia Bar and the Bar of the Supreme Court of the United States. He remains a member of five United States Circuit Courts of Appeal. In 1989, he became a principle in the law firm of Merchak, Alston & Rollison, and in 1992, he became a partner in the law firm of Smith Hudson Hammond & Alston. He later was named as judge of the Prince William Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court.

An Emeritus member of the George Mason Inns of Court and a former faculty member and guest lecturer to the Virginia State Bar Professionalism Committee, he also served on the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, the Judicial Education Committee, the Criminal Law Section of the Virginia State Bar, the Virginia State Sentencing Commission, the Virginia State Pro Bono Committee and the Special Commission Reviewing the Rules of Criminal Discovery in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

He has also been active in his community, having served with many civic organizations including the American Heart Association, Didlake, the Virginia United Methodist Church Foundation and the Board of Trustees of Averett University. He also served for eight years as lay leader at Good Shepherd United Methodist Church in Dale City. He is the Commissioner of the Christian Fellowship Softball League and a past president of the Northern Virginia Football Officials Association. He is also an adjunct professor at George Mason University and a distinguished adjunct professor at the Antonin Scalia Law School. In May 2018, Alston received the Dean’s Judicial Excellence Award from Antonin Scalia Law School.