Stephen E. Heretick, Councilman

Stephen E. (“Steve”) Heretick was born in Hopewell, Virginia, on May 29, 1960. Steve was elected to the Portsmouth City Council in 2004, and was recently re-elected in 2008. During his tenure, Steve has served as Chair of the Hampton Roads Regional Jail Authority, and has served on the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission, among many other boards and commissions. He is married to Stephanie von Schaaf of Walton, New York, and they have one son, Stephenson Ford von Schaaf-Heretick. Steve and his family live in the Glensheallah neighborhood with their labradors Miss Piggy and Forrest.

Steve attended the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy and Psychology in 1982. Steve was accepted into a dual doctoral (J.D./Ph.D.) program sponsored jointly by Hahnemann University Medical School and Villanova University Law School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduating with the Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1988. Steve served clerkships with the Clerk of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and with the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Steve was subsequently selected to serve as a law clerk for the Honorable Edmund V. Ludwig, Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

Following his federal judicial clerkship, Steve was selected to serve in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, serving first as Assistant Regional Counsel for the Northeastern United States from 1988 through 1990, and as Chief Counsel for the United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, serving from 1990 through 1992. During this time Steve was awarded the Regional Counsel’s Medal for Meritorious Service in 1989, and a Special Act Award from the Justice Department in 1991. Steve was nominated as the Federal Bureau of Prisons Attorney of the Year in 1991 and as United States Department of Justice Attorney of the Year in 1992. Steve was awarded the Justice Department Award for Public Service in 1992.

In 1992 Steve joined the firm of Moody, Strople & Kloeppel, Ltd., in Portsmouth, where he remained until 1996. As lead counsel in a series of landmark transportation cases, Steve was personally featured on “How Safe The Rails?”, a segment of Investigative Reports by Bill Kurtis Productions, and on the NBC Evening News with Peter Jennings. Steve was subsequently associated with the Norfolk firm of Payne, Gates, Farthing & Radd, P.C., from 1996 through 2000. In 2000 Steve established his present firm, Stephen E. Heretick, P.C., which is located in Portsmouth. Steve concentrates in corporate and commercial litigation, secured transactions, and labor litigation, representing regional, national, and international clients in state and federal courts throughout Virginia.

In July 2003 Steve was appointed to the Virginia Board of Medicine by Governor Mark Warner. Upon his reappointment to the Board in July 2007 by Governor Tim Kaine, Steve was elected President of the Virginia Board of Medicine in July 2007, the first non-physician in Virginia history to serve as President of the Board, which regulates over 40,000 physicians and health care providers throughout Virginia. Steve was reelected as President of the Virginia Board of Medicine in July 2008. Steve also serves as a Fellow of the Federation of State Medical Boards.