Mr. Shewmake was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia. He received his Bachelor of Arts from the College of William and Mary in 1982 and his law degree from William and Mary’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law in 1985. He was an Editor of the William and Mary Law Review and is a member of the Order of the Coif.

Mr. Shewmake enjoys extensive experience in zoning and land use law. In addition to representing clients on commercial and residential land use issues, Mr. Shewmake has previously served as a Planning Commissioner in Chesterfield County and served as the Commission’s Chairman in 1998.

Mr. Shewmake also is a civil litigator and has handled a variety of complex commercial, administrative law, construction, and injury cases. He has authored and co-authored articles on covenants not to compete, administrative and antitrust law and has lectured on both appellate practice and trial litigation. Mr. Shewmake is a mediator and is qualified to mediate a wide range of civil law matters, from personal injury cases to multiparty business disputes. He also is a trained collaborative law practitioner. Mr. Shewmake has been included in Virginia Business' Legal Elite in the area of alternative dispute resolution. Collaborative law may be particularly appropriate when a dispute involves long-standing business or personal relationships. Mr. Shewmake is the former chairman of the appellate litigation subsection for the Virginia State Bar. 

Mr. Shewmake is active in the community. In addition to serving as a Planning Commissioner, Mr. Shewmake sits on Chesterfield’s Advisory Committee for Gifted Education and has served on Chesterfield County’s Committee on the Future, the Commonwealth Attorney’s Drug and Violence Task Force, the Richmond Bar Association’s CLE Committee and the Greenfield Elementary PTA, as well as the Board of Directors of the Huguenot Little League, the Midlothian YMCA, the Midlothian Rotary Club, and Chesterfield’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission.