“Global Experience, Local Concern, Personal Trust”

Bernard (“Bert”) van Gils has conducted a wide range of business transactions domestically and overseas, for companies conducting business throughout the globe. He has brought his business and legal experience to benefit his local community. Clients of all types, from business executives to new entrepreneurs and estate planning clients, whether needing complex trusts or simple wills, have been impressed by his empathy, warmth, ethics and deep sense of personal trust.

He has experience with business and corporate law, local and international business transactions, education, copyrights, trademarks, non-profits, estate planning and asset protection. He believes one must do good to do well so he has a special place in his heart and business for guiding a variety of non-profit organizations and helping them achieve their mission.

Bert has been active in his local community by providing his legal, teaching and executive abilities to a variety of organizations such as the Warrenton Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Fauquier County Chamber of Commerce, the Fauquier County Community Action Committee, the Ballet Academy of Warrenton and the Fauquier Regional Technology Association. He is a founding director of the Gloria Faye Dingus Music Alliance which operates a music and arts center in Old Town Warrenton.

Bert received his Juris Doctor in 1986 from the Washington College of Law of American University in Washington, D.C., where he was an Associate Editor of the inaugural edition of The American University Journal of International Law and Policy. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in History and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, British Columbia. Bert is a member of the Virginia State Bar (admitted to practice, April 1987) and a member of the International Law, Business Law, and Wills, Trusts and Estates sections.

Patricia “Pat” van Gils is the office manager, paralegal, organizer, scheduler, and bookkeeper for the firm. Pat left the Northern Virginia “Beltway Experience” to focus on growing and managing this family business where honesty, integrity, quality and compassionate values she and her husband hold dear, guide their activities on a daily basis. Her former career encompasses experience in a variety of settings such as government contracting companies, law firms, engineering firms, research and development firms, builders, computer consulting companies, and trade associations. Pat’s experience also includes starting, managing and conducting a word processing service, supervisory skills, and public liaison at trade shows and conferences. She has a close family that includes a brother and two sisters with many nieces and nephews on both her side and her husband’s side. Pat loves being by the water as well as in it. She navigates the water by swimming, kayaking, skiing, snorkeling and diving.