Senior Leadership
Chuck Slemp
Chief Deputy Attorney General
Chuck Slemp serves as Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia. Slemp previously served as Commonwealth's Attorney for Wise County and the City of Norton, having been elected in 2015 and reelected in 2019. Prior to his service as a prosecutor, Slemp held the post of Commissioner of Accounts for the Circuit Court of Wise County. He also practiced criminal, domestic relations, and estate administration, and local government law. Slemp is a graduate of the University of Virginia's College at Wise with a degree in business administration, he holds a master's degree from Regent University in Public Policy, completed post-graduate study at Oxford University Hertford College in the United Kingdom, and earned his Juris Doctor degree from Regent School of Law. Slemp serves as co-chair of the Virginia Criminal Justice Conference, a member of the Virginia State Bar Criminal Section Board of Governors, and an adjunct professor at UVa-Wise, Regent University, and Mary Baldwin University.
Darrell D.J. Jordan, Jr
Chief of Staff
Before accepting the appointment of chief-of-staff, D.J. Jordan served as a Senior Vice President at Pinkston, a strategy and communications consultancy based in Falls Church. Prior to Pinkston, D.J. worked in the United States Congress for ten years in several offices, including the Office of Senator James Lankford and the House Committee on Small Business. D.J. started his career in broadcast journalism, working for several national media outlets like CNN and Fox News. D.J. has a bachelor's degree in communications from Liberty University, and a master's degree in public management from the Johns Hopkins University. In 2017, D.J. completed a four-year term of service on the Virginia State Board of Social Services. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Virginia's Kids Belong, a nonprofit that helps foster children throughout the Commonwealth. D.J. has also served as a member of the 20/20 Bipartisan Justice Center, which advocates for and empowers local communities to create innovative solutions to problems in the criminal justice system. D.J. was born and raised in Hampton Roads and he now lives in Prince William County with his family.
Klarke W. Kilgore
Chief of External Affairs and Policy
Serving as the Campaign Manager for Attorney General Miyares, from January 2021 until his victory in November, Klarke Kilgore guided the Miyares campaign to become the first candidate to unseat an incumbent AG in Virginia since 1885. For this role, Kilgore was awarded the 2021 American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) Republican Campaign Manager of the Year. Kilgore brings several years of federal government and White House experience to the office. Kilgore served in the White House as an Associate Director in the Office of Political Affairs and as the Deputy Director of Appointments in the Presidential Personnel Office. Previously, Kilgore worked for Virginia Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA09) and at Data Trust. Kilgore was born in Southwest Virginia, raised in Richmond, and is a graduate of the University of Virginia.
Andrew Ferguson
Solicitor General
Andrew earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Virginia, where he was an articles editor of the Virginia Law Review. After law school, he clerked for Judge Karen L. Henderson on the D.C. Circuit and Justice Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court of the United States. He also practiced law at several D.C. law firms. Before his appointment as Solicitor General, Andrew served as Chief Counsel to the U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). He had previously served as Chief Counsel for Nominations and the Constitution to then-Chairman Lindsey Graham and as Senior Special Counsel to then-Chairman Chuck Grassley.
Theo Stamos
Special Counsel to the Attorney General of Virginia for Cold Cases, Actual Innocence and Special Investigations
Theo Stamos began her career as a prosecutor in 1987 in the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office for Arlington County and the City of Falls Church, capping off her career there as the elected CA from 2012 to 2019. She comes to our team from the U.S. Department of Justice where she has served in both the Trump and Biden Administrations as a state and local law enforcement liaison in the Office of Legislative Affairs. Her husband, Craig Esherick, is the former head men's basketball coach at Georgetown University and current professor of sport management at George Mason University.
Coke Stewart
Deputy Attorney General: Health, Education, and Social Services
Prior to joining the Office of the Attorney General in January of 2022, Ms. Stewart was a member of the faculty at Regent University School of Law, teaching contracts and appellate advocacy and supervising research in intellectual property law. Prior to that position, Ms. Stewart served as the Acting Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Deputy Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). In that role, Ms. Stewart helped manage one of the largest intellectual property offices in the world and helped oversee the agency's more than 14,000 employees and $4 billion budget. Ms. Stewart has been counsel in over 50 federal appeals, has advised the Department of Justice on numerous intellectual property cases before the United States Supreme Court, and has handled many administrative law cases defending agency regulations and procedures. Prior to her government service, Ms. Stewart practiced law for 14 years in Washington, D.C., most recently at Kaye Scholer LLP. Ms. Stewart has been active in numerous professional and civic organizations, including the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference, the Administrative Conference of the United States, the American Bar Association Section of Litigation, the University of Virginia Law School Foundation, and the District of Columbia Bar. Ms. Stewart is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Virginia School of Law. In law school, she served as Executive Editor of the Virginia Tax Review and Editor-in-Chief of the Virginia Law Weekly. After law school, Ms. Stewart clerked on the United States Court of Federal Claims in Washington, D.C., for the Honorable James T. Turner.
Leslie Haley
Deputy Attorney General: Government Operations and Transactions
Leslie is a Richmond-area attorney and former member of the Chesterfield Board of Supervisors. She has been practicing law in Virginia for over two decades and brings a unique combination of legal and business skills from her years of experience in private practice following her service as Senior Assistant Ethics Counsel at the Virginia State Bar, and her tenure in management and business development with Philip Morris, U.S.A. Leslie's former practice focused on advising lawyers and law firms across the state and nation on the application and implication of ethical quandaries and risk management issues. Additionally, she consulted on law office practice management including policies and procedures and served as an expert on the Rules of Professional Conduct. During her 14 year term with the Virginia State Bar, Ms. Haley provided ethics consultation to members of the Bar, answering hundreds of ethics calls each year, drafting written advisory ethics opinions, and writing and speaking on ethics issues as they relate to lawyers and law firms' practices. She writes and has presented over 200 CLE seminars to her colleagues and associates. Additionally, Ms. Haley has worked extensively with the Office of the Executive Secretary of the Supreme Court of Virginia, Court Improvement Program in developing and presenting educational workshops geared specifically to the Juvenile Court system to provide "best practices” to assist lawyers and judges in the important work they do with children and families. Leslie's credentials also include service on the Board of Supervisors in Chesterfield County representing the Midlothian District and in 2010 she received the Influential Women of Virginia Award.
Steven Popps
Deputy Attorney General: Civil Litigation
Steven Popps was a litigation partner at an international law firm prior to joining Attorney General Miyares's administration to oversee the civil division as a deputy attorney general. He previously served as a law clerk to the Honorable Henry E. Hudson, U.S. District Court Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, and served on the staff of the staff of the late U.S. Senator John Warner of Virginia. Steven is a graduate of College of William & Mary and the College of William & Mary School of Law, where he was a lead articles editor for the William & Mary Law Review.
Nicole Wittmann
Deputy Attorney General: Criminal
Nicole Wittmann has spent much of her 26 years as a prosecutor serving the people of Loudoun County as the Chief Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney and Commonwealth's Attorney. She specialized in the prosecution of sex crimes, human trafficking, internet solicitation of children, child pornography, child abuse, domestic abuse, homicide, and other violent crimes. Ms. Wittmann was a founding member of the Loudoun Children's Advocacy Center, Domestic Abuse Response Team, Sexual Assault Response Team, and served as the Director of the Victim Witness Program for the Loudoun County Commonwealth's Attorney's Office. Wittmann received her undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College, and her law degree from Michigan State University College of Law.
Mark Fero
Director of Crime Reduction Initiatives
Mark Fero currently serves as the Director of Crime Reduction Initiatives in the Executive and Administration Division for the Office of the Attorney General of Virginia where he provides program and financial oversight to federal- and state-funded grant programs. After college he joined the Army and was recruited by the Honor Guard, 3rd U.S. Infantry ("The Old Guard" Escort to the President) as a Finance Specialist. In addition to serving on the Governor's Advisory Board on Volunteerism and National Service, he serves the community as the Chair of the Richmond Police Foundation Board, an Advisory Member for the National Center for the Prevention of Community Violence, Director on the Virginia Public Safety Foundation and as the Treasurer for the Virginia Service Foundation.