Cleo-Symone Scott is an associate in Klein Thomas Lee & Fresard’s Richmond office, where her practice focuses on Product Liability and Commercial Litigation.

Cleo brings substantial courtroom-adjacent experience to her practice. Prior to joining the firm, she served as a law clerk to Chief Justice Cleo E. Powell of the Supreme Court of Virginia from 2025 to 2026. Before that, she clerked for Judges Robert B. Rigney, Jamilah D. LeCruise, and Jennifer L. Fuschetti of the Norfolk Circuit Court from 2024 to 2025 — experience that gave her early, direct exposure to case strategy and judicial decision-making at both the trial and appellate levels.

Cleo earned her J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law, where she served as Technical Editor of the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology and graduated with an Intellectual Property Certificate with distinction. During law school, she externed for Judge Doris Henderson Causey of the Court of Appeals of Virginia and for Dominion Energy, Inc., rounding out her litigation and in-house perspective. She also participated in her law school’s Intellectual Property and Transactional Law Clinic, where she counseled clients on trademark, copyright, and business formation matters and filed trademark applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office — experience that sharpened the client counseling and drafting skills she draws on in her current practice. Cleo received the Excellence in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award and the Excellence in Legal Scholarship Award, and her article, Biopiracy: Using New Laws and Databases to Protect Indigenous Communities, was published in the Richmond Journal of Law & Technology and received multiple writing awards.

Before law school, Cleo earned an M.A., with Merit, in International Journalism from City, University of London, and a B.A., cum laude, in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University.