ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Renu M. Brennan Virginia State Bar / Richmond
Renu Brennan is the Deputy Executive Director of the Virginia State Bar. From 2008 to February 2016, she served as Assistant Bar Counsel for the Bar. She prosecuted many cases throughout the Commonwealth before district committees, the Virginia State Bar Disciplinary Board, and three-judge panels. Additionally, she has taught CLEs on various subjects, including the need to support lawyer wellness, aging attorneys, and the disciplinary process. Ms. Brennan is Secretary of Lawyers Helping Lawyers and is a member of the ABA Standing Committee on Client Protection. She was a faculty member for the Virginia State Bar Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Course from 2008 to 2011, and she has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific American Bar Association of Virginia since 2007. She also served as Co-Chair of the Judicial Nominations Committee of APABA-VA from 2009 to 2011. Ms. Brennan participated as an instructor in the Virginia Bar Association’s Rule of Law program. Prior to coming to the Bar, she was a partner with the firm of Vandeventer Black, LLP, where she handled professional malpractice and commercial litigation. From 1998 to 2004, Ms. Brennan was with the firm of Wright, Robinson, Osthimer & Tatum in Richmond, Virginia. Ms. Brennan is licensed in Virginia, the District of Columbia, and California, where she practiced in Los Angeles. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Virginia and a law degree from Boston University School of Law.
James M. McCauley, Virginia State Bar / Richmond
James M. McCauley is the Ethics Counsel for the Virginia State Bar. He serves as staff liaison to the Virginia State Bar’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics and manages the staff in the Legal Ethics Department and the Legal Ethics Hotline. Mr. McCauley served on the faculty of the Virginia State Bar’s Mandatory Professionalism Course from 2004–2010. He teaches Professional Responsibility at the T.C. Williams School of Law in Richmond, Virginia and served on the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics and Professionalism from 2008-2011. He serves on the Planning Committee for the ABA’s Center for Professional Responsibility Annual Conference and the Lawyer Advertising Committee for the Association of Professional Responsibility Lawyers. Mr. McCauley is a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation and American Bar Foundation.
David S. Mercer, MercerTrigiani / Alexandria
David Mercer is a founding partner of MercerTrigiani, a law firm in Alexandria, Virginia, providing representation to community associations. He was previously a partner in the Tysons Corner, Virginia, office of Troutman Sanders LLP, where he served as managing partner from 1997 to 1998. He has been practicing real estate law for more than 45 years, with a concentration on representation of common interest community associations.
Mr. Mercer served on the Board and as Chair of the Board of Directors of The Campagna Center in Alexandria, Virginia. He previously has also served as a member of the Board of Directors of Rebuilding Together Alexandria. He was elected in 2013 to the Board of Governors of the Virginia Bar Association and served as President of the Virginia Bar Association in 2017.
Mr. Mercer was a member and Chair of the Virginia Bar Association Substance Abuse Committee, responsible for administering the “Lawyers Helping Lawyers” program. In 1999, he was awarded the James R. Treese Award for his work and leadership in substance abuse programs. In 2002, he was among the volunteer leaders who worked to establish “Lawyers Helping Lawyers” as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and to expand its mission to include mental health issues. He is a regular presenter of continuing legal education programs about substance abuse. Mr. Mercer served as President of Lawyers Helping Lawyers in 2003 and 2004. In 2006 for his work on behalf of “Lawyers Helping Lawyers,” he received the Caron Foundation Legal Professional Award in 2012.
Robert M. Rolfe, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP / Richmond
Robert Rolfe has been a commercial litigator for 42 years and has handled a variety of cases at the trial and appellate level—among them internal investigations, legal malpractice and other law firm–related problems, disputes involving the energy industry, construction litigation and corporate governance cases. For more than 20 years, he has served as the general counsel of Hunton Andrews Kurth, an international firm with close to 1000 lawyers. He has handled virtually every kind of legal issue that major law firms and their lawyers encounter. Among those issues have been addiction, substance abuse and other impairments affecting the firm’s lawyers. He has seen the risks posed by these issues to clients, the affected lawyers and their colleagues, as well as to the firm. With much support from management and his colleagues at his firm, he has witnessed a number of successful efforts to address these problems with the affected lawyers.
Michael E. Sievers / Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP Richmond
Michael Sievers focuses his practice on commercial real estate and energy transactions, as well as unmanned aircraft systems (aka "drones"). He has extensive experience with tax credit-generating real estate investments, as well as traditional commercial real estate leasing, acquisition, disposition, and financing. Michael is also co-chair of the firm's Unmanned Aircraft Systems practice. His unmanned aircraft systems practice involves assisting clients with all aspects of integrating these emerging technologies into their business practices.
He has been tapped by several media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times, and he has given educational presentations on the topic. He has provided subject matter expertise to the Virginia Israel Advisory Board, an agency of the Commonwealth of Virginia.Michael also serves his firm, colleagues, coworkers, and their family members in an unnamed role by acting as a resource to individuals and/or firm management in seeking to address substance abuse and mental health issues in a holistic and sensitive manner. He is a volunteer with Virginia's "Lawyers Helping Lawyers" and has served multiple terms on the Board of Directors of the Jewish Community Federation of Richmond