Courtney B. Harden

Courtney Harden has almost 20 year of litigation experience in the Commonwealth of Virginia. She has litigated diverse and varied topics throughout her career including eminent domain, breach of contract, medical malpractice, construction defect, and personal injury. Ms. Harden has most recently focused her practice on real estate disputes including partition of land, establishment of prescriptive easements, community association covenant enforcement /defense of enforcement, and zoning disputes.

Over half of Ms. Harden’s law practice is focused on eminent domain law. Ms. Harden primarily represents condemning authorities, but she also represents landowners in both condemnation and inverse condemnation proceedings.    

Ms. Harden has worked on cutting edge eminent domain cases following amendment of Article I, Section 11 of the Virginia Constitution on January 1, 2013. The constitutional amendment represents a groundbreaking evolution in eminent domain law which allow landowner claims for lost profits and lost profits as part of the claim for just compensation.

Her years of experience litigating land use issues has provided Ms. Harden with superior knowledge regarding the use of appraisers as experts, appraisal practice generally, and land valuation issues. Ms. Harden’s extensive litigation experience outside of eminent domain gives her additional relevant knowledge to provide her clients with a full and complete skill set for the analysis, valuation, risk assessment, and trial approach for each land litigation case they confront.

Ms. Harden also has experience with administrative proceedings in the Commonwealth, including appearances before the Virginia Worker’s Compensation Commissioner, Virginia Employment Commission, and the Virginia State Corporation Commission (“SCC”).

Professional Associations and Memberships

• Member: Virginia State Bar Association
• Member: Virginia Bar Association
• Member: Fairfax Bar Association

Admissions

• Virginia, 2003
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, 2006
• District of Columbia Bar, Admitted Pro Hac Vice, two different litigation matters in 2004.
• Maryland, Admitted Pro Hac Vice, 2004 and 2006.

Education

• George Mason University School of Law, Juris Doctor, 2002
• University of Virginia, Bachelor of Arts, Foreign Affairs, 1996

Speaking Engagements

• 2023 Virginia Eminent Domain Conference: “Breaking Down Va. Code Section 25.1-230 – When and How Can I Consider the Project in Valuation?”
• 2022 Virginia Eminent Domain Conference: “Making an Owner Whole, Interest, Reimbursement and other Remediatory Measures.”
• 2021 Virginia Eminent Domain Conference: “Ethics: Communication with Represented and Unrepresented Persons.”
• 2018 Eminent Domain Conference, “Who Bears the Burden? Examining the New Alternative Uniform Pretrial Scheduling Order”
• 2017 Eminent Domain Conference, “The Appraisal Process: The Consequences of Getting the Assignment Correct”
• 2008 National Business Institute, “Road and Access Law: Successfully Handling Disputes”

Past Employment Positions

• Founder, Courtney B. Harden, PLLC,
• Counsel, Rees Broome, PC,