Alumni and Careers

Patrick Fanning, L’13, is the Virginia Staff Attorney for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. In this role, Patrick is responsible for promoting CBF’s policy agenda before the Virginia General Assembly, providing legal advice on Virginia projects and regulatory issues, and serving as the liaison between the Virginia office and CBF’s Litigation Department.

After graduating from Richmond Law, Patrick joined AquaLaw, a boutique environmental law firm in Richmond, where his work focused on representing municipal utilities with compliance with the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act. He subsequently joined Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders where his practice focused on water quality, water supply, and safe drinking water issues and where he provided pro bono legal representation to the Richmond region’s land conservancy, the Capital Region Land Conservancy, for which he now serves on the Board of Directors.

Patrick credits his experience working under Professor Noah Sachs with the Merhige Center for Environmental Studies for creating and fostering connections with Virginia’s environmental legal community and helping launch his career in environmental law. He also participated in the Law School’s Legal Externship Program, working with the Southern Environmental Law Center during the 2012 General Assembly session, a formative experience that solidified his interest in policy work.

Virginia Assistant Attorney General Michelle Welch, L’99, has been prosecuting animal cruelty cases on behalf of the commonwealth since 2000. She is a nationally recognized expert on animal law, frequently advising law enforcement authorities and serving as special prosecutor in state and federal animal law cases. Welch also trains prosecutors, animal control, and law enforcement officers on animal law issues in the commonwealth of Virginia. In 2011, she received the Animal Welfare Institute’s Albert Schweitzer Medal for outstanding achievement in the advancement of animal welfare.

As a Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Richmond, Welch was in charge of prosecuting cases of animal abuse and dogfighting. She testified before a congressional caucus examining animal law enforcement and state and federal cooperation in animal law matters. Welch currently serves as senior faculty for the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (APA), co-chair of the APA’s Animal Law Curriculum Advisory Committee, and adjunct faculty at Richmond Law.

Welch credits the University of Richmond School of Law with providing her unfettered access to great faculty who provided real-world perspective. She explained that her upper-level criminal law classes were taught by the "best and the brightest of the Richmond Criminal Bar [Association]. That access to quality criminal attorneys really affored me a unique perspective about how to fashion my career in public service, and it is what sets UR apart from other schools."

After graduation from Richmond Law, Nikki Rovner worked as an intern in the environmental law section of the Virginia Attorney General’s Office before landing a position as a staff attorney for the Division of Legislative Services’ Natural Resources Team.

With the Division of Legislative Services, “you learn state law incredibly well by writing it,” said Rovner. “But you’re not an advocate. I knew I wanted to be an advocate eventually.” That desire drew her to a newly created role of Director of Government Relations for the Nature Conservancy. From there, she spent four years as Deputy Secretary of Natural Resources for Governor Tim Kaine before returning to the Nature Conservancy in 2010. Her responsibilities within the organization have grown, and she is now Associate State Director.

At the Nature Conservancy, Rovner’s work focuses on building partnerships with government agencies and advocating for policy priorities. Her role is a non-partisan one – “but you can’t just ignore politics and pretend it doesn’t exist, because you won’t be an effective advocate,” explained Rovner. “Trying to balance that out is challenging.” But the challenge is worth the reward for Rovner: “I like being the voice of conservation in the policy-making realm,” she said. “When you’re working with legislators, you’re working with people that make decisions that have a real effect on the environment.”