Attorney
Richmond, Virginia, 23231
During her first career as a high school teacher, Tricia earned national recognition as a James Madison Fellow and National Board Certified Teacher. After surviving a wrenching divorce and multiple floods in 2003, Tricia convinced reluctant local officials to pursue a Hazard Mitigation Program grant that bought out her home and three other chronic flood properties. That two-year odyssey, and a shove from a dear friend (more here), launched her into law school in 2008 as a 40-year-old single mother.
She graduated from the University of Richmond School of Law at the top of her class and joined McGuireWoods shortly afterward. On September 1, 2015, she launched Dunlap Law with a mission to help small business owners thrive. Started without a single client and no outside capital, Tricia’s passion for helping business owners has drawn over 400 clients to the firm which now has five attorneys. Her biggest priority is building the firm’s culture centered on empowerment, education, and empathy with one another and with clients. Tricia is still a teacher. Tricia’s expertise centers on corporate law. She helps companies and individuals navigate: fiduciary duties, shareholder rights and corresponding corporate obligations, boards of director decision-making or conflict issues, and corporate officer responsibilities.
While her experience includes successfully litigating corporate law claims – both direct and derivative – she prefers working through issues without going to court. One of her happiest professional moments came after helping five shareholders work through conflict and mistrust that developed during the pandemic. If you can’t find Tricia at the office, try searching the unspoiled temperate rain forests of West Virginia’s Potomac Highlands. From age 17 to 20, Tricia lived in Knoxville while attending the University of Tennessee. There, she lived in an 1840s-era log cabin and fell in love with Appalachia. Today, Tricia and her husband Kenny have a blended family of five fantastic adult children. They are fortunate stewards of 163 acres of mountain forest and meadowlands. They participate in local historic preservation efforts, West Virginia’s Golden-Winged Warbler program, and pollinator conservation efforts while they thoughtfully develop the land for their retirement home and as a refuge for future generations.
