Sheila C. Haughey

Practice Areas

Family Law; Divorce; Child Custody; Child Support;  Traffic Violations; Juvenile Law; Criminal Law; Guardian ad litem

Biography

Sheila Haughey was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, and she grew up in Toronto, Chicago and New Jersey.  She graduated from what was then Paterson State College (now William Paterson University) in Wayne, New Jersey, in 1976 with a B.A. in psychology, magna cum laude.  She then went to the University of Michigan School of Law, from which she received a J.D. cum laude in 1979.  She and Lloyd Snook were married, and she came to Charlottesville to practice law.  She worked briefly for the Legal Research Group, and served as Assistant, and then Deputy, City Attorney for the City of Charlottesville from 1981 to 1989.  During that time she represented the Charlottesville Department of Social Services, and when she went into private practice she continued that interest in using the law to assist families in crisis.

She joined Lloyd in practice in 1989, forming the firm of Snook & Haughey, P.C.  She was an adjunct faculty member at the University of Virginia School of Law from 1989 to 2001, supervising students in the Family Law Clinic.  She helped to found the Charlottesville Area Women’s Bar Association, and was its first President.  She has also served as President of the Charlottesville Albemarle Bar Association and of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Criminal Bar Association. She also served from 1993 through 2018 as a Substitute Judge in the General District Courts and the Juvenile & Domestic Relations District Courts of the Sixteenth Judicial District.

She is also active in community affairs.  She served on the Board of Directors of Family Service, Inc., from 1983 to 1989, on the Board of Directors of Offender Aid and Restoration, Inc. (OAR), and on the Board of the Region XV Schoolhouse Thrift Shop, including a stint as President of the Board.  She and Lloyd have three grown children and one adorable grandson.  While the children were growing up, she served as Co-President of the Greenbrier Elementary School Parent-Teacher Organization, as a Girl Scout leader, and as a devoted soccer/lacrosse/field hockey/softball/baseball mom and Charlottesville High School Band parent.  

She is a mentor to young lawyers, both in the firm and in the Charlottesville Bar as a whole.