Legal Elite 2023: Business Law Q&A

Title: Managing partner

Other legal specialties: Corporate law

Education: Bachelor’s degree, Loyola University Chicago; master’s in American history, University of Maryland; law degree, University of Richmond

Family: In July, I became a grandmother! Husband, Kenny Cossaboon; daughter Annie, spouse, Josh, and grandson James; daughter Sydney; daughter Abby and spouse, Clay; son Joe and spouse, Casie; son Kevin.

Career mentors: Kenny Cossaboon has helped me learn to be a CEO. Claire Guthrie Gastañaga taught me how to listen and helped me understand that I’m not in this alone. Dale Mullen believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. Heather Hormel Miller eased the loneliness I felt while practicing solo during DL’s early years and helped me keep going. Peri Pardo makes me want to be the person she thinks I am.

Fan of: After years of dreaming, in 2020, Kenny and I bought 163 acres of raw land in West Virginia’s Potomac Highlands, 30 minutes north of Monterey. We live there about 50% of the time in a 240-square-foot “shabin” and work out of Dunlap Law’s Monterey office. We’re working with architect Mark Spangler on the design of our retirement home, which will nestle into the landscape and capture the western views over the Allegheny Mountains.

Your firm specializes in serving small businesses. Why did you choose that niche? In 2015, when I left McGuireWoods and started Dunlap Law, I tried several different practice areas, but I kept coming back to small business and corporate law. It is a natural fit, thanks to my first career as a high school government teacher. 

One of your firm’s specialties is cannabis law. How are you counseling clients on this, given the current freeze on Virginia’s retail market? There are cannabis-adjacent business opportunities for savvy entrepreneurs, and every business needs to have its fundamentals buttoned up.

Check out the rest of the 2023 Legal Elite.