Scott Surovell was elected as a State Senator in November 2015 and was sworn in on January 13, 2016. He currently represents the 34th District which serves the Mount Vernon, Lorton, and Kingstowne areas east of Interstate 95 in Fairfax County. He currently Chairs the Courts of Justice Committee and serves on the Finance and Appropriations, Commerce and Labor, Rehabilitation and Social Services, and Rules Committees. He also chairs the General Government Subcommittee of the Finance and Appropriations Committee and has served as the Senate Majority since November 2023. He chairs the Commission on Utility Regulation, State Water Commission, and the Joint Pandemic Response and Preparedness Subcommittee, and serves on the Joint Rules Committee, Virginia-North Carolina High Speed Rail Compact Commission, Health Insurance Reform Commission, Joint Subcommittee to Evaluate Tax Preferences, Virginia State Crime Commission (Vice Chair), Child Support Guidelines Review Panel, Board of Trustees Frontier Culture Museum of Virginia, Legislative Support Commission, School Facility Modernization Commission, Commission on Virginia Alcohol Safety Action Program, and the Booker T. Washington Commemorative Commission.
Senator Surovell served as the Senator for the 36th District from 2016-to 2023 representing Fairfax, Prince William and Stafford Counties and served as Senate Democratic Caucus Vice Chairman from 2019 through 2023. From 2009 – 2015, Senator Scott Surovell served as the State Delegate for the 44th District. Senator Surovell served as the House Caucus Chairman from 2014-2015 and Campaign Chairman from 2012-2014. He also served in the Counties, Cities and Towns Committee and Science and Technology Committee for six years and the Militia, Police and Public Safety Committee for four years. Senator Surovell was appointed by the Speaker of the House to serve on the Virginia Broadband Advisory Council from 2014-2016.
Overview
Scott Surovell is a 12th-generation Virginian and life-long resident of the Mount Vernon Community. He lives two doors down from his parents’ homes in Tauxemont with his wife Erinn Madden and their four children, Eva, Leia, Mara, and Colin. All four children attend Fairfax County Public Schools and are alumni of Tauxemont Cooperative Preschool as is Scott. Scott’s grandparents, Sam and Flossie Surovell, were among the first twenty families who founded the Tauxemont Community and Cooperative Preschool in the early 1940s. Scott’s maternal grandparents, William and Mildred Booth, were natives of Franklin County, Virginia. Scott and Erinn have been married since 1999.
Education
Scott attended Hollin Hall Elementary School, Waynewood Elementary School, Stephen Foster Intermediate School, and graduated from West Potomac High School in 1989 in the first class to attend all four years at West Potomac. He graduated magna cum laude from James Madison University in 1993 where he received a B.A. with a Major in Political Science and a Minor in American Studies. At JMU, Scott served as the Student Body Vice-President and in the Student Senate. In 1996, Scott received his law degree from University of Virginia School of Law and was Executive Editor of The Virginia Journal of Environmental Law.
Professional
Scott is a co-founding partner and owner of Surovell Isaacs & Levy PLC, a 10-attorney law firm in Fairfax dedicated to helping Northern Virginia’s people and small businesses solve their legal problems. His areas of practice include family law, personal injury, criminal defense, small business litigation and consumer matters. Scott achieved the highest possible peer rating of “AV” from Martindale Hubble at age 31, has been recognized as a “Superlawyer” by Virginia Superlawyer Magazine, in The Best Lawyers in America in the fields of family law and personal injury, and in Washingtonian magazine as one of the top personal injury attorneys in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. Scott has also been recognized as a leader in the legal community in numerous capacities. He was recognized as a Leader in the Law by Virginia Lawyer’s Weekly in 2016. From 2005-2010, he was selected to serve on the Fifth District Attorney Discipline Committee which adjudicates ethical complaints against Virginia attorneys. In 1998-1999, Scott was an ex parte member of the Fairfax Bar Association Board of Directors. Scott has served as the Chairman of the Virginia Trial Lawyers Family Law Section, has lectured continuing legal education classes on numerous topics, and been published in numerous legal journals on various topics.
Other Work Experience
One of Scott’s first job was as a waiter at the Beacon Mall Bob’s Big Boy and the Belle Haven Country Club Tennis Pro Shop. During college, Scott worked in the JMU Dining Hall doing everything from making fast food, working a short order grill to working the dish line. Scott interned in the Office of Records and Registration for the Clerk of the House of Representatives, as Congressman Jim Moran’s first constituent service intern in 1991, also in Congressman Ron Wyden’s Washington, D.C. Office, and with the Natural Resources Defense Council tracking the appropriations process. In 1993, Scott was appointed to a Governors’ Fellowship with Gov. L. Douglas Wilder focusing on the operation of state government where Scott developed and interest in state policy.
Community
Scott served as Director, Secretary, and Treasurer of the Tauxemont Community Association for seven years. Scott has been a member of the Lee-Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce since 2006. He also served as a Board Member of the Lee-Mount Vernon Chamber of Commerce Education Partnership from 2007-2008. Scott has coached girls’ soccer for Lee-Mount Vernon Soccer League since 2007. Scott served as a member of the Fairfax County Public Schools Community Leadership Council from 2008-2009, and the Community Advisory Council starting in 2009. Scott has been a member of the Mount Vernon Democratic Committee since 2001, serving both as Co-Chair from 2004-2005 and as District Chair from 2006-2008. He stepped down after being elected Chairman of the Fairfax County Democratic Committee in early 2008 where he led the Party’s efforts during the 2008 Obama-McCain election until June, 2009 when he resigned to run for Delegate.
Interests
Scott participated in the Fort Hunt Youth Athletic Association leagues in baseball, basketball and football, played soccer in the Lee-Mount Vernon Soccer Association and played men’s tennis against numerous clubs throughout Mount Vernon. Scott played varsity golf at West Potomac High School and still plays when he can. He also captained a men’s softball team from 1996 until 2001 and misses the baseball field. In 1996, Scott bicycled 4,200 miles across the United States. He has hiked all 46 of the 46 “High Peaks” in the Adirondack Mountains in New York and has summited over 100 mountains including 19,341-foot Mount Kilamanjaro in 2021 and the 18,996-foot Mount Cayambe in Ecuador in 2023. He hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in 2017. Scott played the French horn in the West Potomac High School band where he won several awards and honors, and in the nationally-recognized JMU Marching Band. He still plays piano and guitar, and can still make noises on his french horn that amuses preschoolers.