Allen David Shepperson, Esq. passed away in the early morning of Saturday, October 5th at The Johns Hopkins Hospital after a battle with leukemia. His devoted sister Carmen was at his bedside, and he was surrounded by the love and prayers of his family and friends. Born in Hayward, California on September 19, 1946, his memory will be cherished by his only son David Anthony Shepperson. Allen is also survived by his sister-in-law Ann, niece Kathleen and nephews Bill IV, Brian and Ben. He was preceded in death by his parents, Col. William F. Shepperson Jr., U.S. Army, and Dolores Flynn Shepperson, and his brother, William Shepperson III.

Allen was a 1968 graduate of the College of the Holy Cross and a 1971 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. He received an LLM in Taxation in 1975 from the George Washington University School of Law.

Following law school, Allen served as a captain in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps at Fort Meade, Maryland for four years. After his service, he opened his first of 48 Law Firms of Fitzgerald and Smith before serving from 1979 until 1992 as Assistant Counsel in the Office of Professional Responsibility of the U.S. Department of Justice.

Allen retired in June of 2016 after twenty-three years as the County Attorney for Fairfax. He was President of the Virginia State Bar in 2004-2005, the first local government attorney to serve in that capacity. He was also a past president of the Local Government Attorneys of Virginia, Lawyers Helping Lawyers, the Virginia Law Foundation, and the Fairfax Law Foundation. He served as a Virginia State Bar Delegate to the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, on the ABA Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence, and as Chairman of the Virginia CLE committee of the Virginia Law Foundation.

A man of faith, Allen was active in his church community and a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He was also a leader in the community, a former Boy Scouts adult leader, a stalwart member of the Reston Runners, and served as a member of the Reston Association Board of Directors. He loved to run, exercise with his friends at the YMCA, relax in the Shenandoah Valley and at Lake Tahoe, especially in the company of his son, and travel the world.  He has been described as full of life, wisdom and humor, a lion of the law, and an exemplar of the belief that public service is noble and necessary. To his family, he was a stickler for punctuality, and to his colleagues the strictest of grammarians. To all, he was a true gentleman.