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MICHAEL ROBERT McELROY
Attorney
at Law
FEDERAL
PRACTICE
LEGAL EXPERIENCE:
1976 -
1981
TENNESSEE
VALLEY AUTHORITY (TVA)
Knoxville,
Tennessee
Trial Attorney.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is the
largest electric utility in the United
States. I spent four and one-half years in
the trials and appeals section of the TVA
legal department, exclusively handling
litigation and regulatory matters in U.S.
District Courts, U.S. Courts of Appeal, and
regulatory bodies in Tennessee, Alabama,
Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North
Carolina, Ohio, and Washington, D.C.
PRIVATE
PRACTICE
LEGAL EXPERIENCE: June 1981 - Present
General Practice of Law.
My main areas of practice include public
utility law; trials and appeals; property
tax law; administrative hearings; and
general corporate and commercial practice.
From June
of 1981 until December of 1985, I practiced
with James A. O'Leary, Esq. under the firm
name of O'Leary & McElroy in Providence.
Mr. O'Leary subsequently became a partner
with former Rhode Island Governor Philip W.
Noel in the firm of McGovern, Noel & Benick,
P.C. He is now in practice with his son
under the name O’Leary Law Associates.
From
December 1985 until May of 1987 I was in
solo practice in Providence.
From May
1987 I practiced under the firm name of
Schacht & McElroy in Providence. My
now-retired partner, Robert M. Schacht, was
the former Director of Business Regulation
for the State of Rhode Island, and also was
Executive Counsel to former Rhode Island
Governor (and later U.S. Senator) John H.
Chafee. In 2015, I added Leah Donaldson,
Esq. to the firm. In 2020, we renamed the
firm McElroy & Donaldson.
PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS:
In 2022,
I received the Ralph P. Semonoff Award for
Professionalism from the Rhode Island Bar
Association. This award is presented every
other year to an attorney who has
“exemplified . . . the epitome of
professionalism in the law, advancing the
calling of professional practice through
leadership, high standards of integrity,
commitment, and dedication.”
In 2019,
I was elected President of the Rhode Island
Bar Foundation (the charitable arm of the
Rhode Island Bar Association). I was
reelected President in 2020, 2021, and
2022. I am a lifetime fellow of the Bar
Foundation and I have been a member of the
Foundation’s Board of Directors since 2014.
I was the
President of the Rhode Island Bar
Association from 2012 – 2013. When I ended
my term as Bar President, U.S. First Circuit
Judge Bruce M. Selya wrote saying: “I want
to express my admiration for your
spectacular leadership of the Rhode Island
Bar Association over the past year. . . .
all the members of the Bar are indebted to
you for your labors.”
I
regularly practice before the Rhode Island
Public Utilities Commission and the Division
of Public Utilities and Carriers, and I am
an approved attorney for the Rhode Island
Energy Facility Siting Board.
I have
been at various times a member of the Rhode
Island Bar Association’s Supreme Court
Bench/Bar Committee, the Federal Court
Bench/Bar Committee, the Superior Court
Bench/Bar Committee, and the Environmental
and Energy Law Committee, among others.
I was
appointed by the President of the Bar
Association to be the Chairman of the
Superior Court Bench/Bar Committee for three
consecutive fiscal years, from 2003 to
2006. During my tenure, and working with
the Presiding Justice of the Superior Court,
we revised the Rules of Civil Procedure and
we also established a mandatory medical
malpractice mediation program. The
mediation program was a significant
success. When I stepped down as Chairman,
the Presiding Justice wrote a letter stating
that “In my 15 years as presiding justice, I
cannot recall any individual from the bar
who has worked as diligently as you have to
improve not only the relationship between
the bench and the bar, but also trying to
make the judicial system more efficient and
effective.”
In 2006,
I was elected to the Rhode Island Bar
Association’s House of Delegates. I was
then elected by the House of Delegates to
the Bar Association’s Executive Committee.
In 2013, I was appointed by the President of
the Bar Association to the Nominating
Committee. In 2016 and 2020, I was
appointed as Chair of the Victoria Almeida
Servant Leader Award Committee. In 2016, I
was appointed to a 3-year term as Chair of
the Nominating Committee.
I
am a member of the Million Dollar
Advocates Forum, which is limited to
trial lawyers who have achieved a verdict or
settlement of $1,000,000 or more.
I
have been selected for inclusion in New
England Super Lawyers. I have been
selected as one of the top 100 trial lawyers
in Rhode Island by The National Trial
Lawyers.
I
have been selected as one of The Best
Lawyers in America (Tier 1 ranking).
For 2015, 2018, 2021, and 2023, I was
selected as the Best Lawyers’ Rhode
Island Energy Law “Lawyer of the Year”. In
2018, and 2021, I was selected as the
Best Lawyers’ New England Energy Law
“Lawyer of the Year” as published in the
Wall Street Journal, April 2018 and
April 2021.
I
have been profiled in Who’s Who in
American Law, Who’s Who in America, Who’s
Who in the World, and other similar
publications. In 2018, I received the
Albert Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award
from Marquis Who’s Who.
In 2022, Thomas F. Ahern, who served
as Administrator of the Division of Public
Utilities and Carriers (RIDPUC) for about 20
years, wrote a congratulatory note to me,
saying that “I always said that you were the
best attorney to appear before the RIDPUC.”
PUBLICATIONS:
-
Introducing Our New Fellows, Rhode
Island Bar Journal, Vol.71, No. 3, pp.
5-6 (2022).
- A
Terrific Annual Meeting, Rhode Island
Bar Journal, Vol. 71, No. 2, pp. 5-7
(2022).
-
Grateful, Rhode Island Bar Journal, Vol.
70, No. 6, p. 5 (2022).
-
Overcoming Adversity, Rhode Island Bar
Journal, Vol. 70, No. 5, p. 7 (2022).
-
Kindness, Rhode Island Bar Journal, Vol.
70, No. 4, p. 5 (2022).
-
Big Dreams, Rhode Island Bar Journal,
Vol. 70, No. 3, p. 5 (2021).
- A
Grateful Tribute to Our Volunteers,
Rhode Island Bar Journal, Vol. 70, No.
2, p. 5 (2021).
-
Your Bar Foundation’s Activities, Rhode
Island Bar Journal, Vol. 69, No. 6, p. 5
(2021).
-
Human Connections, Rhode Island Bar
Journal, Vol. 69, No. 4, p. 5 (2021).
-
Jim Jackson – The Foundation of our
Foundation, Rhode Island Bar Journal,
Vol. 69, No. 3, p. 5 (2020).
-
Heroes Among Us, Rhode Island Bar
Journal, Vol. 69, No. 2, p. 5 (2020).
-
Less than 5%?, Rhode Island Bar Journal,
Vol. 69, No. 1, p. 5 (2020).
-
Now, More Than Ever, Rhode Island Bar
Journal, Vol. 68, No. 6, p. 5 (2020).
-
Becoming a Fellow, Rhode Island Bar
Journal, Vol. 68, No. 5, p. 9 (2020).
-
Keeping the Lights On, Rhode Island Bar
Journal, Vol. 68, No. 4, p. 7 (2020)
-
The Good We Do, Rhode Island Bar
Journal, Vol. 68, No. 3, p. 5 (2019).
-
Representing Clients Before the Rhode
Island Personnel Appeal Board, Rhode
Island Bar Journal, Vol. 63, No. 5, p. 9
(2015).
-
It’s Pretty Damned Depressing, included
in a book of essays entitled Befriending
Death, published by iUniverse, Edited by
Michael C. Vocino and Alfred G. Killilea
(2014).
-
Now You Know, Rhode Island Bar Journal,
Vol. 63, No.2, p. 27 (2014).
-
Chief Justice Joseph R. Weisberger
Tribute, Rhode Island Bar Journal, Vol.
62, No. 1, p. 9 (2013).
-
Help for Bar Members and their Families
Suffering from Alcoholism, Rhode Island
Bar Journal, Vol. 61, No. 6, p. 3
(2013).
-
Let’s Make Our Mothers Proud!, Rhode
Island Bar Journal, Vol. 61, No. 5, p. 3
(2013).
-
Dangers of the Pro Se Explosion, Rhode
Island Bar Journal, Vol. 61, No. 4, p. 3
(2013).
-
The Tragedy of Wrongful Convictions,
Rhode Island Bar Journal, Vol. 61, No.
3, p. 3 (2012).
-
First Thing We Do, Let’s Kill All the
Law Schools, Rhode Island Bar Journal,
Vol. 61, No.2, p. 3 (2012).
-
Who is This Guy?, Rhode Island Bar
Journal, Vol. 61, No. 1, p. 3 (2012).
PUBLIC
APPOINTMENTS:
1. In
1981 I was appointed to serve as Special
Assistant Attorney General under Attorney
General Dennis Roberts II to serve as
counsel to the Rhode Island Public Utilities
Commission.
2. In
1991 I was appointed by the Governor to
serve as legal counsel to the State of Rhode
Island Personnel Appeal Board and I served
in that position through 2015. The Board is
a quasi-judicial body that hears appeals by
Rhode Island State employees from job
actions such as demotions, layoffs and
terminations. My duties involved advising
the bipartisan board regarding hearing
procedures and applicable law. I prepared
draft decisions for the Board and handled
Superior and Supreme Court appeals for the
Board.
3. In
1992 I was appointed by the Presiding
Justice of the Superior Court as an
Arbitrator of civil cases in the Rhode
Island Superior Court.
4. In
1993 I was appointed by the Presiding
Justice of the Superior Court as a Special
Master/Commissioner of Real Estate.
5. In
1994 I was one of five persons nominated by
the Judicial Nominating Commission to fill a
vacant judgeship in the Rhode Island
Superior Court.
6. In
1997 I was appointed by Governor Almond to
the Planning Advisory Committee that
assisted in preparing the State’s Master
Development Plan for the Port of Galilee.
7.
In 2000 I was selected as Special Legal
Counsel to the Rhode Island Ethics
Commission.
COMMUNITY/POLITICAL ACTIVITIES:
I served
as Chief Legal Counsel to Bruce Sundlun in
both his 1988 and 1990 Campaigns for
Governor. In 1988, Mr. Sundlun lost to the
incumbent Governor by less than 1%. In
1990, Mr. Sundlun was elected Governor.
I have
coached boys and girls youth basketball
teams and Babe Ruth league baseball teams.
I was the statistician for the Classical
High School Boys Basketball team for four
years.
In 2004,
Jammat Housing and Community Development
Corp., a non-profit community organization
in Providence, named me to its Advisory
Board and dedicated a room in its new
community day-care facility in my name.
In 2018,
I was named to the Advisory Committee of
Volunteer Services for Animals.
CRIMINAL
LEGAL EXPERIENCE:
1975-1976
MASSACHUSETTS DEFENDERS COMMITTEE
Boston, Massachusetts
Public Defender
under Rule 3 of the Massachusetts Supreme
Court. The position involved responsibility
for the preparation and trial of misdemeanor
criminal trials in Dorchester District Court
under the general supervision of an advocacy
professor from Boston University Law
School. The position also involved
responsibility for handling arraignments of
both misdemeanor and felony criminal matters
and probation and parole revocation
hearings, including hearings at Walpole
State Prison.
OTHER
LEGAL EXPERIENCE:
Summer -
1975
TOBIN,
LEROY & SILVERSTEIN (now Hinckley, Allen &
Snyder),
Providence, Rhode Island
Law
Clerk.
The position involved preparing research
memoranda involving real estate, tax,
corporation and estate matters.
1974-1975
PROFESSOR ROBERT B. KENT
BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Research Assistant.
The position involved detailed research and
personal interviews with Rhode Island
Superior Court Justices regarding
implementing the Civil Discovery Rules of
the Rhode Island Superior Court.
NATIONAL CENTER FOR STATE COURTS
Boston, Massachusetts
Research Assistant.
Position involved preparing a profile of the
Rhode Island Judicial System.
PRELEGAL
EDUCATION:
1969-1973
UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND
Kingston, Rhode Island
B.A.
Highest Distinction, 1973
Cumulative Average 3.76/4.0
Major:
Political Science
Honors:
Captain of the U.R.I. Crew Team; Appointed
by the U.R.I. President as the first student
Ombudsman in U.R.I. history; Rhodes Scholar
nominee; recipient of Honorary Danforth
Fellowship.
LEGAL
EDUCATION:
1973-1976
BOSTON
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LAW
Boston, Massachusetts
J.D.
cum laude, 1976
Class Rank 12/427 (top 3%)
Cumulative Average 85.19
ADVANCED
EDUCATION:
Summer
1982
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
East Lansing, Michigan
Graduate
Studies Certificate
Intensive Regulatory Studies Program in
Public Utility Law
1982-1987
BRYANT
UNIVERSITY
Smithfield, Rhode Island
M.S.T.
with honors (Master of Science in
Taxation)
Degree awarded in May 1987
Cumulative Average 3.75/4.0
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