Thomas Cullen Honored as 2024 Carter O. Lowance Fellow
Thomas Cullen ’04, U.S. District Judge in the Western District of Virginia, was honored in April as the Law School’s 2024 Carter O. Lowance Fellow.
The fellowship brings a distinguished public servant to campus and is named for the late Carter O. Lowance, who served as Chief of Staff to six Virginia governors and as Executive Vice President of the College.
Cullen came to campus for two days to hold a lunchtime talk with Criminal Law Society students and members of Professor Adam Gershowitz’s Criminal Law class, and another lunch talk with students about views from the bench and his work as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. He also sat in on Professor Fredric Lederer’s Evidence class and Professor Katherine Mims Crocker’s Federal Courts class.
"Judge Cullen exemplifies ‘distinguished public servant’ to a tee, serving the nation and the Commonwealth well in his capacity as U.S. District judge,” said Dean A. Benjamin Spencer. “We are fortunate that he joined us and shared his wisdom with our students as a Lowance Fellow.”
Nominated by President Trump in December 2019 to serve as a U.S. District Judge in the Western District of Virginia, Cullen was confirmed by the Senate with a strong bipartisan vote in September 2020. Since that time, he has served as a trial judge in the judicial district that encompasses Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Roanoke, Danville, Lynchburg, and far Southwest Virginia.
Cullen graduated from Furman University in 2000, and graduated near the top of his class as a member of the Order of the Coif from William & Mary Law School in 2004. After law school, he clerked for two federal judges, the Honorable Robert E. Payne of the Eastern District of Virginia, and the Honorable Roger L. Gregory, now Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Following his judicial clerkships, Thomas began his legal career as a federal prosecutor in Charlotte, North Carolina, before eventually returning to Virginia. He later joined the law firm now known as Woods Rogers Vandeventer Black, where he led the firm’s white-collar and government investigations practice group.
In February 2018, U.S. Senators Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine recommended that President Trump nominate Cullen to be the United States Attorney for the Western District of Virginia. Cullen was confirmed by the full Senate a month later.
As U.S. attorney, Cullen directed the federal response to the “Unite the Right” riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, including the successful hate crimes prosecution of James Alex Fields and the convictions of several California-based white supremacists under the federal Anti-Riots Act.
The Washington Post Magazine profiled Cullen’s work as a U.S. attorney, including on the Charlottesville cases and his efforts to increase public awareness of domestic extremism. And while U.S. Attorney, Cullen regularly wrote and published op-eds in several news outlets, including the New York Times.
About Carter O. Lowance
Lowance began his career as a reporter for the Roanoke Times and the Associated Press. He enlisted in the Army during World War II and served as a counter-intelligence officer, parachuting into northern France hours before D-Day. Following the war, he returned to Virginia to begin a 31-year career as chief executive assistant to six of the Commonwealth’s governors. His knowledge, effectiveness, and integrity as an aide earned him the affectionate nickname of the "little governor." In 1970, he began his service to William & Mary as executive vice president. He passed away in 1989.The Lowance Fellowship was first conferred upon Chief Justice William Renquist in 1990.