Taite Westendorf

I've been a criminal defense attorney in Virginia Beach for nearly 20 years. I started as a public defender in 2006 and spent 11 years there before founding Westendorf & Khalaf with my law partner Bassel Khalaf in 2017. Bassel and I met in the public defender's office, and we built this firm around a shared mission: bringing genuine trial experience to clients in a field where that experience is far rarer than the marketing suggests. The public defender's office is where you actually learn to try cases. You don't get to cherry pick. You get whatever walks in - murder, rape, armed robbery, all of it - and you try them. That crucible is what shaped both of us as lawyers. I've won not guilty verdicts in murder, rape, malicious wounding, gun charges, sexual battery, and cases carrying life sentences. I've published actual closing argument transcripts on our website because I believe that's the honest way to show what kind of work we do in a courtroom. Talk is cheap. Read the transcripts. I also handle appeals in the Court of Appeals of Virginia and the Supreme Court of Virginia. That appellate work makes me a better trial attorney - I know how to preserve issues, spot legal errors, and protect a case at every level of the system. I'm from here. I grew up in Virginia Beach, went to First Colonial, then UVA, then Richmond Law. I live here with my wife, four kids, and two dogs.