Heather Carlton is a criminal defense attorney in Charlottesville. Carlton previously served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Western District of Virginia and the District of Columbia, where she prosecuted a wide variety of federal crimes, including racketeering, violent crime and public corruption. In WDVA, she functioned as the district’s deputy criminal chief, senior litigation counsel and a managing assistant U.S. attorney. She created and implemented the district’s violence reduction initiative. In D.C., Carlton was the lead prosecutor for the city’s most violent district before becoming a senior prosecutor in the homicide section. Carlton has tried numerous cases in both state and federal courts, and argued appeals before the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. For her work, Carlton was given the VGIA 2018 Federal Prosecutor of the Year award, and is also the recipient of the John Perry Alderman Award, the Inspectors General Investigative Award from the Department of Defense and a DOJ Special Achievement Award.
Since graduating law school, Carlton has also defended clients in complex commercial litigation, ranging from securities fraud to products liability to intellectual property cases, at firms in Boston; Washington, D.C.; and Charlottesville.
Carlton graduated from the University of Virginia College of Arts & Sciences and from the Law School. She teaches the Prosecution Clinic with Joe Platania.