Jeff focuses his practice on corporate transactions working with emerging and established businesses to provide strategic, growth-oriented legal advice. He seeks to combine practical in-house experience with public sector awareness. He has served as lead counsel on numerous venture capital financings, private equity raises, mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances and complex limited liability operating agreements. He has counseled multiple clients from formation through growth to successful exit.
Prior to founding his own firm Mitchell Law Firm, Jeff was a shareholder at LeClair Ryan. In 1997, he founded the Firm’s Blacksburg Office. Jeff briefly left private practice and served as general counsel of a Blacksburg-area technology company in 2000 and 2001. He also practiced with Flippin Densmore Morse & Jessee prior to that firm merging with LeClair Ryan.
Jeff’s passion for emerging growth companies has supported the creation and development of many entrepreneur-focused endeavors. He also is a frequent speaker on topics of interest to small business owners. He has been quoted in The Wall Street Journal and often serves on panels on entrepreneurship issues.
After college, Jeff joined the staff of former Governor Gerald L. Baliles, where he served in the Office of the Secretary of Economic Development. He focused on economic development strategies and issues involving many of the regulatory agencies overseeing Virginia’s private sector. He has served as a key political advisor to many Virginia elected officials, including former Governor and current U.S. Senator Mark R. Warner.
Jeff has served as a director and advisor for numerous business and civic entities, including several privately held companies. He was the 2011-2012 Chairman of the Virginia State Board for Community Colleges, which oversees Virginia’s twenty-three community colleges and a budget of nearly $1B. He formerly served as President of the Blacksburg Country Club and is a Past President of the Virginia Public Safety Foundation. He also served as Chairman of the Virginia Public Safety Memorial Fundraising Committee which raised $2 million to construct the memorial honoring Virginia public servants killed in the line of duty now located adjacent to Virginia’s Capitol Square. Currently he is the Chair of the Development Committee of Preston’s Smithfield.
He serves as the Secretary of the Section Council of the Virginia Bar Association Business Law Section and is a member of the Standing Committee on Legal Ethics of the Virginia State Bar. Jeff is a member of the American Bar Association Middle Market and Small Business Committee.
He is an Honors graduate of The University of Richmond School of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of The University of Richmond Law Review, and he is a 1986 graduate of Virginia Tech.
He holds a degree in Accounting and, although not a practicing accountant, has passed the CPA exam. Jeff is a native of Tazewell, Virginia, and an Eagle Scout of Troop 93 (Tazewell, Virginia). He has been married for over thirty years and has one child, a daughter.