May 25, 2021
Christina Compagnone Receives VSB Young Lawyer of the Year Award
Christina A. Compagnone (Stierhoff) has been awarded the 2021 R. Edwin Burnette Jr. Young Lawyer of the Year Award by the Virginia State Bar Young Lawyers Conference.
This award recognizes young lawyers who demonstrate dedicated service to the conference, the legal profession, and the community. Compagnone has served in a number of roles in the YLC, including spearheading the Social Media Committee and co-chairing the YLC’s Professional Development Conference.
Most recently, Compagnone and her co-chair, Courtney Frazier, revived the Professional Development Conference (PDC), a program that had been inactive since 2018. In April 2021, over 140 young lawyers attended the free daylong CLE opportunity aimed at developing their practical skills in a professional, relaxed, and now virtual format.
Additionally, Compagnone has helped develop and manage the YLC’s social media accounts since 2017. Along with her co-chair at the time, Amanda Newins, she received the YLC’s 2019 Significant Service Award for building a strong social media presence that engaged the young legal community.
“Her creative posts encourage young lawyers and keep them informed of the Virginia State Bar's events, and her meticulous schedule of posts helps advertise other young lawyers' events and accomplishments,” said Walter Weber, American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ) Senior Counsel, in his nomination submission.
In her role as Associate Counsel for the ACLJ, Compagnone litigates First Amendment matters from inception to resolution in federal court. Prior to joining the ACLJ litigation team, she worked in the firm’s international human rights sector, drafting Universal Periodic Review reports for the United Nations and fighting for clients unjustly imprisoned overseas. She is also a frequent contributor to the ACLJ’s blog, writing posts on human rights violations and current cases.
During law school, she served in numerous internship programs ranging from the European Centre for Law & Justice in France to the Legal Aid of Eastern Virginia. She also spent a semester at the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Virginia Beach using her Virginia Third Year Practice Certificate. As team brief-writer for the Oxford University Price Media Moot Court Competition on International Human Rights in 2016, her team won awards for both the Best Brief in the Americas and the Second-Best Brief in the World.
Her parents founded Mercy Chefs in 2006, a non-profit that feeds people warm meals during disasters. Compagnone worked with Mercy Chefs throughout her schooling, doing everything from serving food to keeping the accounts. She earned several service awards for her outreach through Mercy Chefs and continues to serve with them today.
Compagnone graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia with a degree in foreign affairs and earned her Juris Doctor from the Regent University School of Law. She currently resides in Alexandria with her husband and Maine Coon, Raja, and enjoys spending her time in community fellowship with National Community Church and serving her HOA.