David Masterman has in less than two decades established himself as one of the top divorce attorneys in Virginia. If man is a sum of his experiences – the son of an NBC journalist, growing up in Falls Church, Va., and Amarillo, Tx., a one-time college punk-rock lead vocalist – Masterman is a wonderfully original product. Further, peers and rivals alike say the 46-year-old Masterman has an exceptionally quick and creative mind; with it he’s built a reputation as an effective, accomplished divorce attorney.

In many respects the law came to him early. Friends and family members told him he’d make a great lawyer when he was a point-dissecting 4th grader; inevitably he was runner-up in the Texas Quad-A High School Debating Championships. At his first college, Texas Tech, faculty members reviewed his off-the-chart grades and encouraged him to seek a greater challenge. At Iowa’s Grinnell College, he continued to excel, and headed straight to law school. “I thought I’d be a prosecutor,” Masterman recalls, but instead was recruited by a Cleveland firm expecting to do estate and trust work – “I found myself becoming a tax lawyer, working in documents all day.”

Returning to Virginia, Masterman joined the Arlington firm of Joanne Alper, a renowned family law practitioner and today a Circuit Court Judge. It was Alper who immersed Masterman in divorce law. With the state’s new divorce statutes enacted in 1982, “there was no good case law. All of a sudden a young lawyer was on a level playing field.

In 2003, Masterman and colleague Cheryl Graham launched their own firm, located now in spacious offices on Greensboro Drive near Tyson’s Corner. If Masterman is known for a sub-specialty it is perhaps in custody cases. “I wouldn’t call myself a fathers’ rights activist, but I’ve gotten some good results.” He has represented spouses, and prevailed, in disputes over lottery winnings. But generally he is well known for his animated, effective work in court and in mediations alike.

Away from the office he enjoys his three young children, as well as synthetically mixing music compositions using “the latest gadgets.” He lives in Annandale, Va.

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