H. Van Smith practices family law and estate planning across central Virginia, including from his offices in both the Richmond metropolitan area and Williamsburg. Van also routinely provides strategic legal counsel to business owners, elected officials, professional athletes, entrepreneurs, and political consulting firms in long-term, retained attorney-client relationships.
He is the sole owner of SMITH STRONG, PLC and a member of the family law sections of the Virginia State Bar, the American Bar Association, and the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association. Van is also a member of WealthCounsel a national organization of estate planning attorneys.
Each week, Van’s practice preserves financial assets and protects futures as individuals and their families navigate divorce/custody transitions, estate planning through the retirement years, and elder law by avoiding impoverishment from nursing home costs.
Van has been featured several times in the Richmond Times Dispatch, Virginia Gazette, Daily Press, WRVA 1140AM, William & Mary News and UVA Today; he welcomes the opportunity to educate his community on divorce, custody, and family law issues in Virginia.
In 2013, the Virginia legal community welcomed Van Smith’s first book in the Legal Strength Series: The Ultimate Guide to Divorce and Custody in Virginia: Quickly Get Back to Fully Living Your Life.
And Van Smith and his team at Smith Strong were honored in 2013–and again in 2014, 2015, 2016–with Avvo’s Client Satisfaction Award for Family Law, including divorce and child custody matters.
In 2016, the American Society of Legal Advocates awarded Van Smith its Top 40 Under 40 Family Lawyers in the State of Virginia distinction.
In 2015, the Richmond Times-Dispatch awarded its Readers’ Choice Lawyer distinction to Van. And Virginia Business magazine awarded Van membership into “Virginia’s Legal Elite” in 2015-20`7 in the field of Family/Domestic Relations.
And the National Advocates awarded Van its prestigious Top 100 Matrimonial and Family Lawyers, a nationwide recognition.
Van received the highly regarded Super Lawyers’ Rising Star distinction in the area of family and matrimonial law in 2014 – 2017.
In 2017, Attorney and Practice Magazine awarded Van its Top 10 Attorneys in Virginia in Family Law award.
Van’s practice focuses on family law matters, including divorce, related tax and business issues, custody and support plans, property distribution, integrated solutions for wealth preservation and management post-separation, collaborative law, and civil litigation. Van also assists families with complex trust and estate planning as well as probate matters with clients based upon his deep roots from Richmond to Williamsburg, Virginia. Van routinely advises clients on trust analysis and administration, business and wealth succession planning, tax planning, asset preservation, and business valuation working closely with a family’s accountant and financial advisor.
Smith Strong, PLC offers a comprehensive range of family law services from advice and counseling on the most sophisticated and complex business and legal issues to negotiating agreements, mediating disputes, and litigation involving: