Education
Beales is from Boydton, Virginia and graduated from the College of William and Mary and received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1986.
Beales is from Boydton, Virginia and graduated from the College of William and Mary and received his law degree from the University of Virginia in 1986.
He previously served as Chief Deputy Attorney General and succeeded to the position of Attorney General of Virginia in 2001. Beales served in the federal government as a Republican appointee in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. West. Bush. In 1998, Beales was appointed Chief Deputy Attorney General by Virginia Attorney General Mark Earley.
On June 4, 2001, Earley resigned as Attorney General to seek the Republican nomination for Governor and Beales succeeded to the position of Attorney General.
He was later confirmed in that position by the Virginia General Assembly. He was elected a judge of the Virginia Court of Appeals by the Virginia General Assembly on March 10, 2006 to a term ending in April 15, 2014.
He was elected to an additional eight years on the Court on January 14, 2014, taking the expiration of his term to April 15, 2022.