Wanting to be a trial lawyer, Cloyd focused on criminal law; interning at the United States Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., the Public Defender’s Office in Alexandria, Virginia, and the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office in Arlington, Virginia. During his third year of law school, Cloyd successfully prosecuted seven bench trials and second chaired a felony malicious wounding case in Arlington, and earned an acquittal for a wrongfully arrested defendant in a felony jury trial in Alexandria. After law school, Cloyd began his legal career serving as a Judicial Law Clerk for the Honorable Richard E. Gardiner of the Fairfax County Circuit Court. Within his first two years of practicing law he won a case of first impression in the Virginia Supreme Court arguing that trust is not a contract and not subject to mandatory arbitration under the Virginia Uniform Arbitration Act or the Federal Arbitration Act.
