George Holton Yates

George Holton Yates has been Lead Counsel at his law firm in Virginia Beach since 1989 where he has defended thousands of clients in judge and jury trials of criminal cases in every city in the Greater Hampton Roads region and many other cities and counties throughout the State of Virginia.  He has also defended clients in North Carolina, West Virginia, and Florida.

Prior to his 24 years experience as lead counsel, Mr. Yates was Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney for the city of Virginia Beach from 1985-1989 where he tried hundreds of judge and jury trials of every kind of criminal case from DUI to child sex abuse to murder.

He has been certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacy as a Criminal Trial Specialist (1987, 2002, 2007 and re-certified in 2012).

As a graduate of Wake Forest Law School in 1982, Mr. Yates was a member of the Moot Court team.  He specialized in civil and personal injury litigation for 3 years before leaving private practice to become a prosecuting attorney.

During his time with the Commonwealth's Attorney office, Mr. Yates became more aware of the special needs of criminal defendants, and how poorly some of them were represented by their lawyers. There were many times during those years as a prosecuting attorney that he observed defense lawyers failing to make critical arguments for their clients. He often found himself making those arguments for the defense simply to make sure those defendants were treated fairly by the judge or jury.

After leaving the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office in 1989, Mr. Yates began his own law firm, George Holton Yates, PC.  From 1989 to 1995, he practiced every kind of law:  Criminal Defense, Personal Injury, Civil & Construction Litigation, Domestic Relations, Wills & Trusts, Real Estate and some Business law.  He taught a business law class for the City of Virginia Beach and continued to serve as a Commercial Law Arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.

Since 1995, Mr. Yates has specialized in Criminal Defense and Personal Injury.