His experience as a litigator has taken him to trial and appellate courts throughout Virginia and numerous other states and the District of Columbia. He has been a member of the Supreme Court of the United States since 1974, and has represented numerous clients in that Court.

He has served on numerous corporate boards. Mr. McSweeney has also been recognized by Virginia Business Magazine as one of Virginia’s “Legal Elite” for 2007 in Civil Litigation and by Virgina Super Lawyers as a "Super Lawyer" for 2008.

• Private practice of law, McSWEENEY, CRUMP, CHILDRESS & GOULD, P.C. (and its predecessor firms) (1977- Present)
• Executive Director, Commission on State Governmental Management (1973-1977)
• Acting Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice (1973)
• Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Department of Justice (1972-1973)
• Deputy Director, Executive Office of United States Attorneys, Department of Justice (1971-1972)
• Assistant General Counsel, Governor’s Management Study (1970-1971)
• Private practice of law, Mays, Valentine, Davenport & Moore, Richmond, Virginia (1969-1971)
• Staff Attorney, Taxation and Finance Committee, Virginia Commission on Constitutional Revision (1968)
• Law Clerk, Judge Albert V. Bryan, Sr., United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1968-1969)
• Editor-in-chief, University of Richmond Law Review (1967-1968)
• Adjunct Professor, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, Virginia Commonwealth University (1997, 1999, 2004)
• Chairman, Republican Party of Virginia (1992-1996)
• Chairman, Richmond Regional Planning District Commission (1981-1982)

Other Associations :

• President, Virginia Conservative Alliance (2000-Present)
• Member, Board of Directors, Voting Integrity Project, Inc. (1996-2000)
• Chairman, Republican Party of Virginia (1992-1996)
• President, Richmond-First Club (1990-1991)
• Chairman, Policy Committee, Republican Party of Virginia (1987-1992)
• Virginia Jefferson Association (1985-1987) (Board Member, 1984-1996)
• Chairman, Virginia Bar Association Committee on Administrative Law (1981-1985)
• Member, Powhatan County Planning Commission (1977-1983)
• Member, Richmond Regional Planning District Commission (1977-1983)
• Vice President, Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions (1980-1982)
• Chairman, Richmond Regional Planning District Commission (1980-1981)

Voluntary Bar Memberships

• Admitted to Virginia State Bar, 1968
• United States Supreme Court
• United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth and Fifth Circuits
• United States District Court, Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia
• Virginia Bar Association
• Richmond Bar Association

Sample Reported Decisions:

• Puffenbarger v. Bd. of Supervisors of Goochland County, 3 Va. Cir. Ct. 321 (1985)
• Resource Conservation Mgmt., Inc. v. Bd. of Supervisors of Prince William County, 238 Va. 15, 380 S.E.2d 879 (1989)
• Virginia Citizens for Better Reclamation v. Watt, 735 F.2d 1359 (4th Cir. 1984)
• Mary Helen Coal Co. v. Hudson, 164 F.3d 624 (4th Cir. 1998)
• Mary Helen Coal Co. v. Hudson, 235 F.3d 207 (4th Cir. 2000)
• Eastern Enterprises v. Apfel, 522 U.S. 1105 (1998) (140 L. Ed. 2d 99 (1998))
• Menzel v. County Util. Corp., 721 F.2d 91 (4th Cir. 1983)
• Star Scientific, Inc. v. Beales, 278 F.3d 339 (4th Cir. 2002), cert. denied, 537 U.S. 818 (2002)
• Roanoke River Basin Ass’n v. Hudson, 502 U.S. 1092 (1992)
• Roanoke River Basin Ass'n v. Hudson, 991 F.2d 132 (4th Cir. 1993)
• North Carolina v. FERC, 112 F.3d 1175 (D.C. Cir. 1998), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 1108 (1998)
• Citizens for the Pres. of Nibbs Creek v. Bergland, No. 79-0778-R (E.D. Va. 1980)
• Petersburg Cellular P’ship v. The Bd. of Supervisors of Nottoway County, 205 F.3d 688 (4th Cir. 2000)
• Gee v. Boyd, 471 U.S. 1058 (1985)

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• Bachelor of Laws, T.C. Williams School of Law, University of Richmond, 1968
• Bachelor of Art (English), University of Virginia, 1964

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• Weekly newspaper commentary on politics in The Daily Press published in Newport News, Virginia (2001-Present)
• "Tortious Interference with Business Relations and Conspiracy Under Virginia Law," Virginia Trial Lawyers Journal (Summer, 1991)
• "Virginia's New Water Law and Its Effect on the Riparian Doctrine," The Virginia Bar Association Journal (Spring, 1990)
• "Pitfalls in Environmental Standing," 29 Virginia Bar News 15 (1981)
• Editor of the Virginia Bar Association's Young Lawyers Section newspaper The Docket (1970-1971)
• "Local Government Law in Virginia, 1870-1970," University of Richmond Law Review 174-222 (1970)
• “Water Rights: Early Common Law to the Present,” Local Government Attorneys of Virginia, Inc. Conference (Spring, 1989)
• “The Regional Sales Tax Referendum: A Flawed Approach,” The Virginia News Letter (October, 2002)
• “An Undisciplined Way to Fund State Government Programs,” The Virginia News Letter (December, 2004)

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