Attorney
Ms. Peiffer’s work focuses on criminal appeals and post-conviction petitions in the state and federal courts, and petitions for pardons and clemency.
Before joining Virginia Post Conviction, Ms. Peiffer worked as a Senior Staff Attorney at the Capital Representation Resource Center, where she represented death-sentenced clients in state habeas corpus proceedings, federal habeas corpus proceedings, and clemency proceedings for fifteen years. Prior to that, Ms. Peiffer represented clients facing death penalty trials, at the Offices of the Capital Defender in Richmond, Virginia, and Atlanta, Georgia. After law school, Ms. Peiffer clerked for two years for a federal district court judge in the Western District of Virginia, where she gained an in-depth perspective on federal cases
Ms. Peiffer has planned and served as faculty for training sessions sponsored by the Virginia Indigent Defense Commission and the national Habeas Assistance and Training Project. She also served as the Chair of the Virginia State Bar’s annual conference on defending a capital murder case. In 2017, she was awarded the Bill Geimer Award for dedicated capital defense, presented by the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse, Washington and Lee University School of Law. Ms. Peiffer has taught a fourteen-week seminar on the death penalty in the United States as an adjunct professor at the William and Mary School of Law.
Ms. Peiffer prides herself on providing client-centered representation, and is known for her persistence and advocacy in complex cases and careful attention to detail.
Education
- William & Mary School of Law – J.D., 2005
- University of Richmond – B.A. in Political Science, 2002
Admissions
- Virginia Bar
- Georgia Bar
- United States Supreme Court
- U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Fifth Circuits
- U.S. District Courts for the Eastern District of Virginia and Western District of Virginia
