Topic: Identifying & Managing the Occupational Risks of Practicing Law

When: Wednesday, May 5, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. 

Registration Required (open until the session starts). Register Here. (Approved for 1 hour VA CLE credit )

Presentation Summary:

The panelists will identify a risk to wellness within the practice of law, as identified in the 2019 report, “The Occupational Risks of Practicing Law,” issued by the Virginia State Bar President’s Special Committee on Lawyer Well-Being. They will discuss (i) how the risk manifested at different parts of their careers (in self or colleagues) and (ii) what practice pointers have worked to address it.  Then the floor will be open to all your questions. Bring any and all of  your most pressing questions; the panelists will answer as many as possible in the allotted time. We hope this session will help law students think about developing positive coping strategies early so you will convey these practices into the development of your identities as young lawyers.

Note: This session will be recorded.

Written Materials: 

• Outline: CLE Occupational Risks – VSB Presidents – Written Materials 2021
• Logistics: LSWF 2 VSB Presidents on Risk – INTRO- Slides 2021

Presenter Biographies: Current, Former, and Future Virginia State Bar (VSB) Presidents. 

Jay Barry Myerson (83rd President, 2021-2022): Jay Barry Myerson Myerson founded The Myerson Law Group, P.C. in 1986 and supervises a domestic, criminal, and civil litigation practice. Myerson was first elected to Bar Council in 2014, representing the 19th Judicial Circuit. Myerson was elected as the 2021-2022 president of VSB and is past president of the Fairfax Bar Association. He served in the ABA’s House of Delegates and is a past president of the George Mason American Inn of Court. In June 2018, he received The Virginia State Bar Conference of Local and Specialty Bar Associations Local Bar Leader of the Year Award in recognition of dedicated service, professionalism and inspiration to the bench, the Fairfax Bar Association and the community. A graduate of Georgetown University and Georgetown Law School, Myerson is a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation and a Fairfax Law Foundation director.

Brian Lawrence Buniva (82nd President, 2020-2021): Brian Lawrence Buniva has practiced law for more than 40 years, including working for the Virginia Attorney General’s Office, solo practice, practicing in small, medium-sized and large firms, as an “in-house” counsel for an international manufacturing company, and in his current solo practice at B.L. Buniva Strategic Advisor, PLLC. Buniva is current president of VSB and has served on Bar Council and the Executive Committee and has chaired the Administrative Law and Environmental Law Sections for both the VSB and the Virginia Bar Association. He served for many years as co-chair of the VSB Special Committee on Bench-Bar Relations, and as Chair of the VSB’s Access to Justice Subcommittee of Special Committee on The Future of the Practice of Law. A graduate of Georgetown University, Buniva received his law degree from the University of Richmond.

Marni E. Byrum (81st President, 2019-2020): Marni E. Byrum has practiced law for over 30 years, focusing on labor, employment and personnel law. She has litigated cases before state and federal courts, as well as the Merit Systems Protection Board, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Federal Labor Relations Authority. The kinds of cases she handles include wrongful termination, prohibited personnel practices, discrimination, and disability as well as security clearance appeals. She also advises clients in negotiating employment contracts and severance agreements. She also drafts policy and procedure manuals, provides in-house training and conducts neutral investigations and evaluations of personnel matters. She is a former president of VSB and Super Lawyers, through extensive evaluation, awarded her distinction as a top-rated practicing attorney from 2014 – 2020. Marni Byrum graduated in 1979 from Pepperdine University School of Law. Marni Byrum was admitted to practice law in 1979.

Leonard C. Heath, Jr. (80th President, 2018-2019): Leonard C. Heath, Jr. is a trial attorney and former president of VSB. He has extensive experience in trying cases across Virginia, in both state and federal courts. He has handled a wide variety of legal matters, including personal injury, wrongful death, business litigation, will/trust/estate disputes, and real estate litigation. This experience has earned him a place on the coveted Super Lawyers’ list, and has also helped him secure an “AV Preeminent” rating from Martindale Hubbell and a “Superb” rating from AVVO. In January 2020, Len was inducted as a Fellow of the Virginia Law Foundation. Fellows are recognized as leaders in the profession, not just in their practices, but in their communities. This honor is held by less than 1% of Virginia attorneys. Len is also a Fellow in the Litigation Counsel of America, which is a close-knit, peer-selected, and aggressively diverse honorary society of 3,500 trial lawyers across the country. Less than one-half of one percent of American lawyers are invited to join this organization.

Doris Henderson Causey (79th President, 2017-2018): Doris Henderson Causey is the managing attorney of the Richmond office of the Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, has been awarded the Clarence m. Dunnaville Jr. Achievement Award, sponsored by the VSB Diversity Conference. In 2017, Causey made legal history in the Commonwealth when she was inducted as the VSB’s first African American president, and first president from the legal aid community. Throughout her legal career, Causey has made service a priority, both in her profession and for the legal community. Causey has provided many years of service on the VSB’s Executive Committee and Bar Council, as well as on the Old Dominion Bar Association’s Executive Committee, and as secretary of both the Old Dominion Bar and of the Hill Tucker Bar, Richmond Chapter.  Causey received her BA in Mathematics and Political Science from the University of Mississippi and her law degree from Texas Southern University, Thurgood Marshall School of Law.

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