VSB NEWS < Noteworthy Two Respected, Esteemed Leaders of the VSB Retire by Deirdre Norman Susan Busch and Mary Yancey Spencer, who have helped manage the growth of the Virginia State Bar in recent decades, have retired. Spencer, who retired as deputy executive director, came to the bar in 1994. The graduate of the University of Virginia law school said of her tenure: “The bar has been a wonderful place to work. We’ve had more than twenty presidents come and go during the years I worked there, and I’m sure they’d all agree that we have the best bar staff in the country. I had the privilege of working with some of the fi nest lawyers in Virginia who volunteer their time to make all that the bar does possible.” When Spencer was asked what she is most proud of about her years at the VSB, her emphasis was on service: to the public and to the members of the bar. “We re-focused the bar’s resources on its primary missions: public protection, access to justice, and self-regulation.” Since leaving the bar, Spencer was appointed by Governor McAuliffe to a volunteer role on the Board of Veterinary Medicine, a natural fi t for the owner of a King Charles Cavalier spaniel named Ali and an amateur bird watcher with a keen interest in animal welfare. She also continues to serve the bar as a member of the Clients’ Protection Fund board. She was succeeded in June by Renu Brennan, who was profi led in the June issue of Virginia Lawyer . Busch, who retired as finance director of the VSB, began her career at the bar in 1979. She has an accounting degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and is a CPA. In her time at the VSB, the membership has more than tripled and the clerk’s offi ce, the www.vsb.org Susan Busch (left) and Mary Yancey Spencer. MCLE department, and the profession-alism course have all become divisions of the bar. Busch noted that since she joined the VSB the fi nance department has become more automated — a far cry from her early days when she manually entered journal entries in a ledger book before typing the fi nancial report on an electric typewriter. Busch said her most rewarding project has been managing and invest-ing the Clients’ Protection Fund, which reimburses clients who have lost money because of an attorney’s dishonest conduct. The fund, which currently contains over $8 million, is funded by an assessment paid by all active bar members. With Virginia having among the lowest bar dues nationwide, Busch com-mented, “We manage our resources like a business and we think very carefully about how we spend our members’ dues. We work with all the department managers and VSB offi cers to keep ev-eryone informed about the revenue and expense projections.” Busch, whose mother was a bookkeeper, plans to spend some time with her 92-year-old dad and visiting the Outer Banks in her retirement. Busch’s role has been fi lled by Crystal T. Hendrick, a long-term member of the Finance Department, who will be the new fi nance/procurement director of the VSB. Vol. 65 | August 2016 | VIRGINIA LAWYER 39