Kristen Hofheimer

Kristen Hofheimer grew up in Virginia Beach, where she attended Virginia Beach Friends School, Independence Junior High, and Kempsville High School. She spent her afternoons and weekends riding her horse and working at Wave Riding Vehicles.

Kristen’s love for horses led her to attend Sweet Briar College, where she was a Chung Mung (only a Sweet Briar graduate would know what that is!), resident advisor, president of the Philosophy Club, founding member of Amnesty International, WUDZ DJ, and was listed in Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. During her undergraduate career, Kristen completed original research on ability of the autonomic nervous system which culminated in the presentation of a paper for the Virginia Psychological Association. Kristen graduated cum laude with a major in psychology and a minor in chemistry.

Six years after her graduation from college, and as a newly-separated mother of a one-year-old, Kristen began law school at the University of Virginia. After her first year of law school, Kristen received a grant from the University of Virginia’s Center for Children, Families & the Law, which resulted in her note, “Breastfeeding as a Factor in Child Custody and Visitation Decisions,” published in the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law. Kristen served on the editorial board of and then as manuscript editor for the Virginia Journal of Social Policy & the Law. Kristen survived law school by swapping babysitting with the other single mother in her law school class, taking part in informal child care and cooking co-ops in UVA’s family housing community, and taking her son to class and journal meetings when necessary.

After graduation from law school, Kristen began practicing law with her father, Charlie Hofheimer, and the other attorneys at Hofheimer Family Law Firm. While Kristen handles all types of family law cases at the trial and appellate levels, Kristen especially enjoys litigating complex child custody cases with unique issues. Kristen is a former Barrister with the Hoffman-I’anson American Inn of Court, former State Liaison for American Inns of Court, a member of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, Past President of the Family Law Organization of Greater Hampton Roads, is currently a member of the Virginia Beach Bar Association’s Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court’s Bar/Bench Liaison Committee, and was named in 2008 & 2009 Super Lawyers as one of Virginia’s Rising Stars. Kristen has published peer-reviewed articles and a book chapter on family law issues, has spoken at national conferences on child custody, and wrote the book “The Woman’s Custody Survival Guide.”

Kristen lived at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. In addition to bodysurfing and horseback riding, she liked cappuccino, sunflowers, microbrews, and Ani Difranco.