LAWYERSWEEKLY
VIRGINIA
Vol. 22, No. 23
November 12, 2007
www.valawyersweekly.com
VIRGINIA’S
Leaders IN THE Law 2007
Richard Cullen long has been among
the most visible of the partners at
McGuireWoods LLP, the Richmondbased legal giant.
That visibility has been enhanced by
two relatively brief forays into the
public sector—as the U.S. attorney for
the Eastern District of Virginia from
1991-93 and as state attorney general
for seven months after Jim Gilmore
resigned in June 1997 to run for governor—and by his association with Republican politicians when Republicans were
in the ascendancy nationally and inVirginia.
But his prominence at the firm
reached a new level in December
when he was named chairman, succeeding Robert L. Burrus Jr., who became chairman emeritus and continues
to practice law and sit on corporate
boards.
When he was elevated to chairman,
Cullen headed the firm’s white collar
defense and government investigation
team and still practices in those areas
and handles complex commercial litigation. For example, he represented
ITT Corporation in March when it
pleaded guilty to violating the Arms
Export Control Act by outsourcing secret night vision technology to foreign
countries, including China.
He also represents former House
Majority Tom DeLay, who resigned in
June 2006, in a federal criminal investigation linked to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
DeLay has not been charged.
Because of Cullen’s prominence in
Republican circles and the partnership
of George Allen with the firm between
Richard Cullen
McGuireWoods LLP
BIOGRAPHY
Education: B.A., Furman
University, 1971; J.D., University
of Richmond law school, 1977.
Achievement: Named
chairman of McGuireWoods
LLP in December 2006
his terms as governor and U.S. senator, the firm is sometimes identified
with the GOP. Cullen emphasizes,
however, that he is not actively involved in partisan politics and points
to the many Democrats and independents among the firm’s lawyers.
Cullen said he views his role at the
firm as setting policy and thinking
longer term than day-to-day management. In fact, Cullen joined the firm’s
executive committee less than year
before he was named chairman and had
not been involved in administrative matters before then.
The firm has about 750 lawyers in
15 offices, two of them overseas.
“We always want to try to improve
our quality,” he said.“We’re continuing
to try to recruit the best young people we can. I’m very optimistic based
on the young talent that we have at
the firm.”
He said he expects continued consolidation among the country’s largest
law firms. “We would like to become
more dominant” in cities where the
firm has a substantial presence.
“We love Richmond, and I think
people will always identify McGuireWoods with Richmond, but we now
have a footprint that puts us all over
the country,” he said.
- Alan Cooper
Reprinted with permission from Virginia Lawyers Weekly, Inc., 801 East Main Street, Richmond, VA 23219. (800) 456-5297 © 2007 #VAMB