2020–21 VSB President First You Have to Make the Team, Then You Get to Change the Game by Deirdre Norman “I expect to be great. I expect to do what hasn’t been done. I expect to provoke change.” — Deion Sanders IN FOOTBALL, THE CORNERBACK is often described as the most athletic player on the field: they must be fast, tough, able to read and react to what’s happening in a split second. Yet, they are rarely famous. With the exception of Deion Sanders, these versatile defen-sive players don’t get the attention that quarterbacks and wide receivers receive. Ironically, the new Virginia State Bar President, Brian L. Buniva, of Richmond, not only played cornerback for three of his four years at Georgetown University, but he was inducted into his new role as president of the 50,000 member VSB with zero fanfare: a small gathering in the Supreme Court of Virginia court-room instead of the traditional banquet for 300 people at the Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach. His induction celebra-tion was a casualty, like so many things, of the COVID-19 pandemic that has gripped the country since mid-March. Of his missed celebration Buniva said graciously, “I feel more disappoint-ment for my predecessor, Marni Byrum, than myself. Marni deserves the fanfare and appreciation of her colleagues for her many years of service to our profes-sion, including this last year as the 81st President of the VSB.” But back to football: Buniva, who is sturdy, yet hardly football player size, was so small as a child that he stuffed his pockets with bar bell weights to make the 80 lb. cut off for his first foot-ball team, placing him on the field with 8 VIRGINIA LAWYER | June 2020 | Vol. 69 players up to 130 lbs. He started off determined, and from that inglorious beginning, Buniva went on to play for his undefeated high school football team in Tenafly, New Jersey, which won the state football championship of 1967. As a result of his efforts, Buniva was inducted into the Tenafly High School Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019, following in the footsteps of his father, Edo “Bull” Buniva, who was inducted posthumously nearly 30 years earlier. Both sets of Buniva’s grandparents arrived in America through Ellis Island, his mother’s family from Ireland and his father’s from Italy. His story has some of the hallmarks of many immigrant fam-ilies: his grandparents came here in the 1900s seeking a better life, and Buniva is the first member of his nuclear family to graduate from college and then become a lawyer. Today, his son Nathan, Nathan’s wife Sylvia O’Brien Buniva, and Buniva’s stepdaughter-in-law, Amanda Weaver, all have law degrees. He is equally proud of his daughter, Emily Buniva Edelson, a doctor of psychology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), and his son-in-law, Jonathan Edelson, a pedi-atric cardiologist on the pediatric heart transplant team at CHOP. Buniva considered attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, where his family often took Sunday drives, and quickly adopted as his own the West Point motto: “Duty, Honor, Country.” His poor eyesight prevented that, and he landed at Georgetown where he not only played football, but became interested in the politics that infuse Washington, D.C. After a few years working in the political arena, Buniva made his way to Richmond and eventually attended the University of Richmond Law School. He said he chose the law because, “I knew I wanted to be of service and at the end of my life, to know that it mattered that I had spent time on this earth. Ultimately, I decided upon a life in the law which has allowed me to advance the West Point ideals of Duty (Commitment to Principle); Honor (Integrity); and Country (with Justice for All).” Buniva chose environmental law, largely because of the environmental movement that came of age in the 1970s and 1980s with the passage of numer-ous federal and state laws designed to protect and preserve the environment. His first position as a lawyer was in the Virginia government, serving as Assistant Attorney General assigned to the Health and Environmental Sections in the Attorney General’s Office. He later transitioned to private practice, but has remained focused on environmental and www.vsb.org