ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Renu M. Brennan, Virginia State Bar / Richmond
Renu Brennan is the Bar Counsel for the Virginia State Bar. She served as Deputy Executive Director of the VSB from 2016 to 2018, and as Assistant Bar Counsel for the Bar from 2008 to 2016. Ms. Brennan 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.
Bernard J. DiMuro, DiMuroGinsberg, P.C. / Alexandria
Bernard J. DiMuro is the managing partner of the Alexandria law firm of DiMuroGinsberg, P.C. He represents clients in complex civil litigation and professional responsibility cases. He was formerly a chairman and member of the Eighth District Grievance Committee and chairman of the Virginia Supreme Court Disciplinary Board. Mr. DiMuro also has been a faculty member of the Virginia State Bar Professionalism Course, a member of the VSB Committee to Study the Code of Professional Responsibility, and a president of the VSB. He assists business clients and their general counsel in litigation management and in the audit of legal fees and legal services.
James M. McCauley, Virginia State Bar / Richmond
James M. McCauley is the Ethics Counsel for the Virginia State Bar where he has been employed since 1989, managing the Bar’s legal ethics section and staff counsel to the Standing Committee on Legal Ethics. His department writes the draft advisory legal ethics opinions, propose amendments to the Virginia Rules of Professional Conduct and provide informal advice via the “ethics hotline” to members of the bar and bench on matters involving legal ethics, lawyer advertising and the unauthorized practice of law. Mr. McCauley frequently lectures and publishes on matters relating to legal ethics and the unauthorized practice of law. He taught Professional Responsibility at the T.C. Williams School of Law in Richmond, Virginia for 15 years, and served on the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Ethics and Professionalism from 2008-2011. Mr. McCauley started his career at the bar as an Assistant Bar Counsel for six years, prosecuting cases of attorney misconduct before the District Committees, Disciplinary Board, and Three-Judge Courts. Before joining the Virginia State Bar, Mr. McCauley was in private litigation-focused practice for seven years. Mr. McCauley graduated cum laude from James Madison University in 1978, received his law degree from the T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond, in 1982 and was on the University of Richmond Law Review. Mr. McCauley served on the faculty of the Virginia State Bar’s Mandatory Professionalism Course from 2004-2010. He is also a Fellow of the Virginia Law and the American Bar Foundations. Mr. McCauley also served on the Board of Governors of the Real Property Section of the Virginia State Bar from 2004-2010. In 2013, he was appointed by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia to serve on its Special Committee on Criminal Discovery Rules. In 2014, Mr. McCauley was elected to the Board of Directors for Lawyers Helping Lawyers. Mr. McCauley is a member of the John Marshall Inn of Court in Richmond, Virginia. In 2018, he was chosen as Leader of the Year by the 2018 Class of Leaders in the Law sponsored by the Virginia Lawyers Weekly.