Quick Summary: Virginia Lawyers Weekly has named Devon Rood Slovensky, founder and managing attorney of Slovensky Divorce & Family Law in Roanoke, Virginia, to its inaugural Virginia Legal 250. She was recognized in the Family Law category. The list names 250 attorneys across 40 practice areas. The Virginia State Bar counts about 32,700 active lawyers in the state.
Key Takeaways
- The honor: Virginia Legal 250, Family Law category, from Virginia Lawyers Weekly (November 2026).
- How honorees are chosen: Attorneys are nominated, and the newspaper’s editorial team makes the final selections.
- What Devon is known for: Divorces where the money is complicated, and family law cases that end up in federal court.
- A rare combination: She is the only attorney in Southwest Virginia who is also a Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® (CDFA®).
What is the Virginia Legal 250?
The Virginia Legal 250 is a new statewide list from Virginia Lawyers Weekly, published for the first time in November 2026. Attorneys are nominated, and the newspaper’s editorial team makes the final selections. The list replaces and builds on the practice-area “Go To Lawyers” lists the paper published in past years.
According to the publication, honorees were chosen for:
- sustained success in their field
- adapting to changes in client needs, the law, technology and the economy
- strong involvement in their communities
What Devon is known for
Devon studied economics at the University of Virginia before law school, and it shows in the cases that find her:
- Divorces where the money is complicated. Business valuations, professional practices, pensions, and contested divorces where the marital estate is hard to untangle.
- Family law in federal court. Hague Convention child abduction cases, I-864 immigration support enforcement, and other litigation in the Western District of Virginia.
- Building better ways to do the work. Flat fees where the work is predictable, and RightSplit℠, the firm’s platform that lets Virginians complete an uncontested divorce entirely online.
“A divorce is the biggest financial transaction most people will ever go through, and it lands at the exact moment they’re least able to think clearly. Somebody has to be able to hold both the spreadsheet and the scared person across the table.”
Devon Rood Slovensky
Her clients are private people, and the firm keeps them that way. They tend to be:
- physicians and physician spouses
- business owners
- professors and academics
- people whose divorce involves a medical practice, a company, a pension or a reputation
“Roanoke and Blacksburg are hospital and university towns, and it shows in my caseload,” Devon said.
Cases that shaped her practice
- Aragh v. Abedini (W.D. Va. 2026). A Hague Convention case. Four weeks after the mother’s petition was filed, a federal judge ordered her five-year-old daughter returned to her in Turkey. The two had been apart for nearly 18 months.
- Madrid v. Robinson (W.D. Va. 2016). The first case in the Western District of Virginia to enforce an I-864 immigration affidavit of support, a remedy for immigrant spouses who were promised support and then left without it.
“Some of the matters I’m proudest of are ones nobody will ever read about,” Devon said, “because my team settled them quietly before they could wreck two households.”
Every case is different. Past results do not predict the outcome of any other case.
How AI is changing family law
Virginia Lawyers Weekly’s criteria include adapting to technology. Asked what will change in family law over the coming year, Devon did not give the expected answer.
“Everyone expects me to say AI will make family law cheaper and faster. What we’re actually seeing at Slovensky Law, where we’ve been building with AI for years, is that it makes the work deeper.”
Devon Rood Slovensky
In practice, she said, that means:
- more detailed discovery review
- more precise financial tracing
- better predictions, because the firm treats its own case history as data
“We’re about to close our 5,000th case, and that experience now tells us what clients are likely to face and where a case is likely to land,” Devon said. “The work product is getting more thorough, not thinner, and we’re proud of that.”
Clients are changing too. “They arrive having already asked AI their questions, and they expect their lawyer to be fluent in it. We are.”
Credentials and leadership
Training and recognition
- Certified Divorce Financial Analyst® (CDFA®) since 2021
- National Institute for Trial Advocacy Master Advocate designation (2022)
- National Family Law Trial Institute in Houston, Advanced Business Valuation (2024)
- Virginia Super Lawyers, 2023 to 2026 (Rising Star, 2018 to 2022)
- The Roanoker’s 40 Under 40 (2021) and Roanoke Bar Association Young Lawyer of the Year (2019)
- Firm honors: Inc. 5000 (2026) and Law Firm 500 (2022 to 2025)
Bar and community
- Roanoke Bar Association: board member and CLE Committee Chair
- Ted Dalton American Inn of Court: member
- Virginia Women Attorneys Association: past president of the Roanoke chapter
- The Twelve Foundation: board member. It operates The Grove on Patterson, a recovery residence in Roanoke where pregnant women and new mothers get addiction treatment without being separated from their babies.
“Keeping mothers and newborns together during recovery is the most upstream family law work I know of,” Devon said.
What this means for clients
An award doesn’t change how we handle a case. Our clients get what they always have: a clear plan, honest advice about what is likely to happen, and a team that prepares. If you are facing a divorce or custody case in Roanoke or elsewhere in Southwest Virginia, schedule a discovery call or call us at (540) 492-5297.
