Virginia Lawyers Weekly

David T. Stitt

David T. Stitt, a Fairfax circuit judge for more than 12 years and a former county attorney, died May 10 after suffering a heart attack while on vacation in Topsail Beach, N.C. He was 65.

Judge Stitt was born in St. Louis but his family moved when he was 2 to Austin, Texas, where he acquired the deep Texas drawl and straightforward manner that were among his most distinguishing characteristics.

“He was an individual without pretense, without arrogance, and he saw things clearly, and he spoke clearly and directly,” his former law partner, William D. Dolan III, told The Washington Post. “You may not like what you were hearing, but you didn’t have to search for nuance. He really had a low tolerance for bull.”

Judge Stitt graduated from Davidson College and served as a Ranger during the Vietnam War before earning his law degree from the University of Texas in 1969. He moved to Washington and worked in the corporation counsel’s office and as an assistant U.S. attorney.

He became an assistant county attorney in 1975 and was named Fairfax County attorney in 1980. He left the county for private practice in 1991 and was appointed to the circuit bench four years later.

Judge Stitt was known as an outdoorsman who enjoyed hiking, boating and playing tennis. He also organized so many volleyball tournaments that the local bar’s volleyball trophy is named for him.

His wife, a son and a daughter survive him.

Michael W. Maupin

Michael W. Maupin, a retired corporate finance and securities lawyer at Hunton & Williams in Richmond, died of leukemia May 5.
A Charlottesville native and an Eagle Scout, Mr. Maupin graduated in 1959 from Virginia Military Institute, where he was class president all four years. He earned his law degree in 1964 from the University of Virginia, where he was editor of the Virginia Law Review.

He clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark before joining Hunton & Williams in 1965. He retired in 2000.

Outside of his legal practice, Mr. Maupin served on the boards of the Richmond Symphony and of Art Works, a project of the Richmond Arts Council to promote Virginia artists. He also enjoyed the outdoors and was a former president of the Virginia Chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

He is survived by his wife, Virginia Powell, who is senior counsel at Hunton & Williams, and two sons.

Raymond W. Bergan

Raymond W. Bergan, a retired partner at the Washington firm of Williams & Connolly who once presented Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa, died May 2 in Arlington of stomach cancer. He was 77.

Regarded as an extraordinarily skilled litigator, Mr. Bergan had been a member of American College of Trial Lawyers since 1974. Other clients included Fairfax politicians in a notorious 1960s bribery case and a major automobile distributorship that was sued two dozen times by car dealerships.

Daniel Katz, a partner at Williams & Connolly, told The Washington Post that Mr. Bergan was a “phenomenal mentor” who “took the time to teach me and other young lawyers how to deal with clients, try cases and analyze legal issues. I made it a point to get the newest lawyers to work with him.”

Mr. Bergan was born in Pittsburgh and grew up in Scarsdale, N.Y. He graduated from Holy Cross College in Worcester, Mass., and received his law degree from Georgetown University in 1954. After three years in the Army, he settled in Arlington and joined the firm that became Williams & Connolly.

Survivors include his wife, four children and six grandchildren.

John M. McCarthy

John M. McCarthy, a retired Virginia senior attorney general, died May 10 at his home in Kents Store of an apparent heart attack. He was 66.

A native of Norfolk, Mr. McCarthy was a graduate of the University of Virginia and the University of Richmond law school. Early in his career, he participated in the challenge to the annexation of part of Chesterfield County by the City of Richmond.
The litigation blocked elections in the city for six years and resulted in a ward rather than an at-large system of electing council members.

Mr. McCarthy joined the attorney general’s office in 1978 as a special assistant. Before retiring in 1996, he represented such state agencies as Virginia State Police, the Virginia Department of Transportation and the Virginia Port Authority.

At the end of his legal career, Mr. McCarthy became interested in painting and took workshops under Wolf Kahn. Much of his work is contemporary landscapes of Goochland, Fluvanna and Albemarle counties.

He is survived by his wife, a daughter and two grandchildren.

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