Criminal Defense Law
1561 E Main St, Richmond, VA 23219, USA
Paul earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in European History from Washington & Lee University. In 1987, Paul fell in love with his future wife, Anne Crow, a Sweet Briar College student from Little Rock, Arkansas. Paul earned a Master of Arts in the study of European History from James Madison University in 1992. The History Department at James Madison recognized Paul’s work by awarding him a position as Student Teacher for two sections of U.S. History 101 during the 1991-1992 school year, and by honoring him after graduation with the Carlton B. Smith Award for Outstanding Graduate Thesis. Paul began his legal studies at the University of Kentucky in the Fall of 1992. Paul’s writing instructor and mentor at Kentucky was the Director of the Kentucky public defender system. Paul spent his next two summers as an intern with the public defender, interviewing clients and witnesses, accompanying attorneys in court, and ghost-writing appellate pleadings. Following his graduation in 1995 and his acceptance to the Kentucky State Bar, Paul immediately began working as a Public Defender in Lexington, Kentucky in Fayette County, a jurisdiction of 250,000. As a Public Defender, Paul successfully represented clients charged with every degree of crime, including DUI, assault, hit and run, rape, burglary, larceny, drug distribution, and murder. In December 1997, Paul successfully defended Louis Lamont Martin, an 18-year-old charged with capital murder and robbery, and kept him from receiving the death penalty. In 1998, Paul accepted a position as a prosecutor for the Kentucky Office of the Attorney General in the Special Prosecutions Division. The six-member Special Prosecution team handled high-profile and sensitive cases from all across Kentucky, with an emphasis on public corruption, capital murder, white collar crime, and election fraud. In 2001, Paul and his wife Anne moved their family back to Virginia where Paul took a post as a Virginia Assistant Attorney General. For the next five years, Paul represented the Commonwealth in criminal appeals, appearing in multiple cases before the Virginia Court of Appeals, Supreme Court of Virginia, as well as in the federal district courts in Virginia and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. And as a member of the Capital Appeals Unit, Paul was counsel for the Commonwealth in over a dozen death penalty cases before the Virginia Supreme Court. In 2003, Paul was trained and admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court and, in the following years, successfully handled two Petitions for Certiorari filed in the United States Supreme Court seeking to overturn death penalty cases in Virginia. In 2005, Paul left the Attorney General’s Office and assumed a position as Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney for the County of Henrico, Virginia. For the next 9 years, Paul was a front-line prosecutor, handling everything from speeding tickets to capital murder. In November 2014, Paul took his vast experience in criminal law and entered the private sector for the first time, forming the Law Office of Paul C. Galanides, P.C. Calling upon his years of contacts with Virginia’s prosecutors and police, Paul began successfully defending clients in criminal cases throughout central Virginia. In 2016, Paul combined his practice with that of former Virginia General Assembly Delegate and renowned local criminal defense attorney, Joe Morrissey, and the two operated as Morrissey and Associates in Highland Springs, Virginia. Paul ran Joe's law office when Joe made his run for Richmond Mayor in the Fall of 2016. Over the next two years, Joe and Paul became a formidable team that successfully defended their clients against the most serious of criminal charges throughout central Virginia. In May 2018, Paul Galanides joined Carlson and Collier to help his friend David L. Carlson ease out of his active law practice. David's guidance and experience was inspiring and his battle with cancer heroic. He will be sorely missed. Now, Paul has re-located his law practice. He brings with him 27 years of experience in every aspect of the criminal law. Paul has established a reputation for his professional performance in court, his extensive knowledge of the law, and his aggressive representation of his clients. Paul Galanides will expertly guide you through the legal minefield, whether it is in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, General District Court, Circuit Court, the federal courts, or the Virginia Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.
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