Rita Davis grew up in the middle of three girls, approximately 10 miles south of Bedford, Virginia. She graduated from Stanton River High School and majored in English at Washington and Lee University, where she was president of the Minority Student Association and a member of the track and forensic teams. After undergrad, she spent three and a half years as a police officer with the Lynchburg City Police Department. While there, she worked in patrol, street crimes, D.A.R.E., vice investigations, and several undercover assignments.   

Ms. Davis left the police department to attend the University of Richmond School of Law in Richmond, Virginia.  After graduating magna cum laude, Ms. Davis clerked for the Honorable Richard S. Arnold on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in Little Rock, Arkansas. Following her clerkship, she joined the Richmond Office of Hunton and Williams LLP, now Hunton Andrews Kurth, as a complex commercial litigator. There, she practiced complex commercial litigation, local tax appeals, and alcohol beverage compliance.  

After 15 years, Ms. Davis joined the Office of the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia as Section Chief for Trials in the Civil Litigation Division. She supervised a team of 21 attorneys defending the Commonwealth in civil, employment law, and workers’ compensation litigation. She was the first African American to hold the position.

Ms. Davis was appointed Counsel to the Honorable Ralph S. Northam in January 2018. There, she provided legal advice to the Governor, his staff, and the Cabinet regarding ethics, state laws, and regulations, liaised with the state attorney general on significant litigation matters involving the Governor, and assisted with policy development. She was the first woman appointed Counsel to a Virginia Governor.

After the Governor’s office, Ms. Davis worked at the Pentagon as Deputy General Counsel (Legal Counsel) for the Department of Defense.  She supervised the Office of Litigation Counsel, the Office of Information Counsel, the Defense Office of Hearings and Appeals, and the Chief Prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions at US Naval Station, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba (GTMO).  In her role, she supervised the provision of legal advice and services in the areas of civil litigation, privacy, investigative and oversight matters, the Freedom of Information Act, records management, personal security clearance hearings, criminal prosecutions, and habeas litigation involving GTMO detainees as well as detainee operations at GTMO. She was the first African American to hold the position.

Ms. Davis served three terms as president of the Hill Tucker Bar Association, the historically African American Bar in Richmond, Virginia. She is a 2013 Fellow of the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity. She received recognition multiple times as a “Rising Star” in Virginia Super Lawyers and received an “Influential Women in the Law” award from Virginia Lawyers Weekly in 2021.

She currently lives outside of Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and two teenage children.