Former Gentry Locke managing partner dies

G. Michael “Mike” Pace Jr., managing partner of Roanoke’s Gentry Locke law firm for several years and a former Virginia Bar Association president, died Jan. 8 after a long illness. He was 66.

Pace, a Salem native, spent nearly his whole career at the Roanoke law firm, starting as a summer associate in 1983 and returning as an associate after graduating from Washington and Lee University’s law school in 1984. He made partner about six years later. In 1999, at age 41, he became the firm’s second managing partner, remaining in the role until 2012. He later served as Roanoke College’s first general counsel and served on the board of trustees for his alma mater, Hampden-Sydney College.

“Mike loved the firm and it really showed in everything that he did,” Monica Monday, chair of Gentry Locke’s executive board and also a former managing partner at the firm, said of Pace. “He took the firm through a really interesting time in the development of the firm. … He was very critical in helping the firm develop a commercial practice, which was the area he practiced in.”

Pace was also heavily involved in his home region. He led the Roanoke Bar Association, the Roanoke Regional Partnership and the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce, among other civic organizations.

“Mike was super-driven to help the Roanoke Valley develop into a greater business region than anybody I’ve probably known,” Brett Marston, Gentry Locke’s managing partner, told Virginia Business.

Pace served as president of the Virginia Bar Association in 2008. He created the Rule of Law Project of the VBA, a nationally and internationally recognized legal education program that resulted in him receiving the VBA’s highest honor, the Gerald L. Baliles Distinguished Service Award, in 2013.

He is survived by his wife of 39 years, Nancy, and two daughters.