About Benjamin J.
Benjamin J. Trichilo built his legal foundation at Georgetown University, where he earned a B.A., and at the University of Virginia School of Law, where he received his J.D. Early in his career he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Richard H. Poff in 1974 at the Supreme Court of Virginia. That clerkship offered him an immediate immersion in appellate reasoning and state constitutional issues.
After his clerkship he moved into private practice and into roles that combined courtroom work with dispute resolution. He later served as a Neutral Case Evaluator for the Fairfax Circuit Court in 1993, handling evaluations that required a steady grasp of litigation dynamics and evidentiary matters. Over the years he has taken on trial and appellate assignments, shifting between advocacy at the trial level and briefing and argument on appeal.
His practice extends across state and federal venues. He is admitted to appear before the Virginia Supreme Court, the Eastern District of Virginia, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court, the District of Columbia courts, and U.S. District Courts. That range of admissions reflects work on matters that have crossed jurisdictional lines and required attention to both procedural and substantive federal and state law.
Trichilo has long been active in professional circles. He holds memberships in the Fairfax Bar Association, the Virginia Bar Association, the Virginia State Bar, the District of Columbia Bar, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, and the Northern Virginia Defense Lawyers Association. He served as President of the Northern Virginia Defense Lawyers Association from 1984 to 1985 and was on the Board of Directors of the Virginia Association of Defense Lawyers from 1993 through 1997. Those roles put him in regular contact with local and regional lawyers, and he has participated in discussions about court practice and trial procedure.
He is a principal at McCandlish & Lillard P.C., where his work has included litigation, appellate briefing, courtroom advocacy, and roles that require evaluation of disputes outside of jury trials. Colleagues and clients have relied on him for practical assessments of cases and for representation in hearings and trials.
Today he continues to practice from his firm office, handling civil litigation, appellate matters, and alternative dispute resolution assignments in state and federal courts. His current practice concentrates on litigation and appellate work in Virginia and the District of Columbia.
