Alexis Bale

“I would rather you think that I am incompetent or not prepared or anything along that line, than I have the opportunity to shock you and prove you wrong. And I would rather stand in the courtroom and prove people wrong 10 out of 10 times than go in there and prove them right.”

Alexis Bale is a trial lawyer in Virginia who represents plaintiffs at Breit Biniazan, with a practice focused on sexual abuse litigation and personal injury. A 2024 graduate of William & Mary Law School, she came up through the school’s National Trial Team and now balances active casework with coaching the next generation of trial advocates.

Bale grew up in the Tri-Cities region of Eastern Washington and set her sights on a legal career early. Through Washington State’s dual-enrollment program, she began taking college courses at Washington State University at the age of 16, then transferred those credits to Gonzaga University, where she completed her bachelor’s degree in economics, magna cum laude, at 19. Told by an undergraduate advisor that she would never be admitted to law school because of her youth, she treated the prediction as a challenge and began applying immediately.

During law school, Bale pursued criminal defense work through summer internships at the Chesterfield Public Defender’s Office and a Connecticut Federal Public Defender’s Office, where she contributed to appellate briefs, legal research, and trial preparation. She also served as a teaching assistant in the Legal Practice Program, mentoring first-year students in legal writing and Bluebook citation. Her competition record was substantial: a first-place finish and Best Advocate honors at the 2024 Academy of Allegheny County Trial Lawyers Mock Trial Competition, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association Trial Advocacy Award, and the Order of the Barristers for excellence in oral advocacy.

A mock trial connection led Bale to the plaintiff’s bar. After meeting the attorneys she now works for, she joined their firm and moved from criminal defense to civil litigation, discovering what she describes as two sides of the same coin — representing people who might otherwise lack the power or the platform to have their stories heard. A significant part of her practice centers on representing survivors of sexual abuse, work she began as an extern and has continued since joining the firm.

Beyond her casework, Bale remains closely involved with William & Mary’s mock trial program, coaching several of its competition teams and drawing on what she observes in student advocates to inform her own trial preparation. Her advocacy interests extend to reproductive rights and criminal justice reform, shaped by earlier work with organizations including If/When/How and the Innocence Project, and she has volunteered as an IRS-certified Advanced Tax Preparer through the VITA program, assisting low-income filers.