Whether helping her clients negotiate to draft commercial leases or working collaboratively to resolve complex family law issues, Leslye Fenton brings a uniquely powerful combination of sensitivity and tenacity to her work.
As an attorney and trained mediator, Leslye believes in listening carefully to her clients to identify what drives their interests. This key, she says, unlocks the paths toward resolution, successful negotiation and, hopefully, beneficial outcomes.
Her practice includes Family Law and Commercial Leasing, and her distinct combination of skills is advantageous in both practices because each demands effective negotiating strategies. With a practical, livable solution as the end goal, Leslye develops the most efficient strategy to solve the problem at hand while helping her clients navigate the legal process to a timely completion.
In her Family Law practice, Leslye concentrates on issues involving equitable distribution of property, child and spousal support, visitation, and a variety of other issues affecting children and families. She is experienced in dispute resolution and is certified by the Supreme Court of Virginia as a mediator. She uses mediation as an alternative to adjudicating family law matters. Leslye also is a frequent speaker on family law issues at The Women’s Center in Vienna, VA, and other organizations.
In her Commercial Leasing practice, Leslye has extensive knowledge and experience representing both landlords and tenants in negotiating and drafting commercial leases of shopping centers, office buildings, business parks, warehouses, and unimproved land. She has also presented a number of CLE seminars on commercial leasing.
Leslye has been listed among Virginia Business magazine’s “Legal Elite” for Alternative Dispute Resolution in five separate years. She has been selected by her peers for inclusion among The Best Lawyers in America® for Family Law Mediation since 2010 and is also named to the Virginia Super Lawyers and the Washington, D.C. Super Lawyers listings for Family Law.
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J.D., George Mason University School of Law, 1984
- George Mason University Law Review, Board of Editors
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M.S.W., Yeshiva University, 1979
- NIMH Fellow
- B.A., Hofstra University, 1974
- Virginia
- District of Columbia
- Divorce
- Premarital & Postnuptial Agreements
- Equitable Distribution
- Mediation
- Commercial Leasing
Reported Cases:
- Brown v. Brown, 5 Va. 238 (1987)
- Will Spousal Support Ever End in Virginia? ( June 16, 2016 )
- IRA Rollover Trap (in Divorce Cases) ( August 11, 2014 )
- Burden of Proof in Virginia Divorce Cases – Separate vs. Martial Property ( April 7, 2014 )
- Negotiating the Lease for New Office Space [AUDIO] ( October 1, 2013 )
- 2010-2021, Best Lawyers in America® – Family Law Mediation
- 2006-2015, 2018 - 2019, Virginia Super Lawyer – Family Law
- 2007-2015, 2018 - 2019, D.C. Super Lawyer – Family Law
- 2008-2009, 2012-2015 and 2017, Virginia Business magazine’s “Legal Elite” – Alternative Dispute Resolution
- 2017, Northern Virginia magazine Best of NoVA, top lawyers in Mediation
- Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Course
- Faculty
- Fairfax Bar Association
- Virginia Women Attorneys Association
- Fairfax County Circuit Court
- Neutral Case Evaluator
- The Women’s Center – Northern Virginia
- Board Member 2005 – Present
