Patrick McSweeney practices law in the City of Richmond where he was born in 1943. He received his undergraduate education from the University of Virginia and his law degree in 1968 from the University of Richmond, where he was editor-in-chief of the University of Richmond Law Review.
He served in a variety of positions at the United States Department of Justice from 1971 to 1973, including Acting Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Office of Legislative Affairs. He also served as counsel to the Governor’s Management Study from 1970 to 1972 and as staff attorney to the Taxation and Finance Committee of the Virginia Commission on Constitutional Revision in 1968.
From 1974 to 1977, Pat was the executive director of the Virginia Commission on State Governmental Management, which proposed and successfully implemented a sweeping reorganization of state government. From 1980-1981, he served as Chairman of the Richmond Regional Planning District Commission.
He was a leader in the successful 1990 referendum campaign to defeat the proposed pledge bond amendments to the Virginia Constitution, in the successful 1998 campaign to defeat two proposed amendments to the Virginia Constitution that would have made it easier for localities to incur debt without voter approval, the campaign to defeat the proposed sales tax increases on the referendum ballots in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads, and the 2006 referendum battle to win approval of the Marriage Amendment.
He also chaired the Republican Party of Virginia from 1992 to 1996. In 2008, he obtained unanimous Virginia Supreme court decisions as lead attorney in the challenge to the Kaine Administratin’s transfer of the Dulles Toll Road to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority and the challenge to the 2007 transportation legislation, which involved an unconstitutional delegation of taxing power to unelected regional authorities.
Pat has four adult children. He has resided with his wife, Wendy, in Powhatan County, Virginia for 35 years.
