John J. Halpin, M.A.

Biography

John J. Halpin is a board-certified vocational expert who joined KWVRS in 2024. He has worked in vocational rehabilitation since 1987 and testifies in personal injury, employment, and marital dissolution matters. He has been accepted as an expert in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. At KWVRS, he forms expert opinions on earning capacity and employability through vocational evaluation, transferable skills analyses, labor market surveys and job analyses, grounded in each evaluee's work history, education, and earnings. His career began as a vocational rehabilitation counselor with Wagner Rehab, the Windham Group and Hoover Services (1987 to 2004), where he provided return-to-work and retraining services along with forensic vocational services, including expert testimony. As owner of Solutions Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services (2004 to 2006) he specialized in placing injured workers in workers' compensation cases, assessed their earning capacity and served as a vocational expert. From 2006 to 2025 he was a senior vocational rehabilitation counselor with the Commonwealth of Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, where he helped people with disabilities return to work. He advised Virginia treatment courts in Charlottesville and Fluvanna County on employability, placeability and earning capacity. He also co-founded and served as president of Orchard Mountain Recovery, a substance use education, prevention, and treatment program (2016 to 2024), and taught as adjunct faculty at Piedmont Virginia Community College (2011 to 2013). He holds a master's degree in personnel administration and industrial relations from Saint Francis College and a Bachelor of Arts in communications from Seton Hall University, with further coursework in counseling theory at Chestnut Hill College and in the medical aspects of disability, vocational counseling, and assessment and placement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. He is a Fellow of the American Board of Vocational Experts, has been a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor since 1997, is a Certified Rehabilitation Provider with the Virginia Board of Counseling and is a certified assessor with the American Society of Addiction Medicine. He has presented at the Virginia Summer Institute of Addiction Studies, the Virginia Reentry Conference, the University of Virginia, the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, and York College of Pennsylvania. In 2019 he received the Ginger Acey Award from the Virginia Association of Treatment and Recovery Providers for distinguished service to the field of substance use disorder treatment and recovery.

Areas of Expertise

• Vocational Evaluation
• Earning Capacity Analysis
• Expert Testimony

Areas of Practice

John works in these KWVRS service lines.

Education

• M.A., Personnel Administration and Industrial Relations, Saint Francis College (1992)
• B.A., Communications, Seton Hall University (1985)
• Coursework, Theories of Counseling, Chestnut Hill College (1996)
• Coursework, Medical Aspects of Disability, Vocational Counseling, and Assessment and Placement, University of Arkansas at Little Rock (2001)

Prior Testimony

John Halpin testifies in court and at deposition as a board-certified vocational expert in personal injury, employment, and marital dissolution matters. He has been recognized as an expert in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. He has provided forensic vocational services, including expert testimony, with Wagner Rehab, the Windham Group and Hoover Services (1987 to 2004) and at Solutions Comprehensive Rehabilitation Services (2004 to 2006). With the Commonwealth of Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (2006 to 2025), he advised the Charlottesville Circuit Court, the Fluvanna County Circuit Court and the Charlottesville Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court on employability, placeability and earning capacity.