Kathleen M. McCauley

Kathleen McCauley focuses her practice on complex litigation and client counseling, representing health care providers in a wide range of matters, including medical malpractice litigation, provider and hospital liability, medical staff issues, health care risk management, and management side labor and employment matters.

For Kate, serving those who serve others is both a passion and a privilege. By taking on the burdens of litigation or other conflicts, she frees her clients to focus on what matters most to them. Many are longstanding, dedicated partners who rely on Kate for guidance at every step.

Her clients in medical negligence actions include physicians, advanced practice providers, nurses, hospitals, academic medical centers, long-term care providers, and assisted living communities. She also handles health care risk management and administrative matters, including proceedings before Virginia’s health regulatory boards and appeals before the VDSS, VDH, and DMAS, and counsels’ clients on, quality assurance and patient safety, discharge planning, disclosure meetings, and clinical ethics. An author and national speaker, she regularly addresses legal issues in surgery, pediatrics, EHR, social media, telehealth, ACO liability, and sexual misconduct litigation.

On the employment side, Kate defends employers in disputes involving discrimination, harassment, breach of contract, defamation, negligent hiring and supervision, non-competition and trade secrets, wage and hour claims, wrongful discharge, and business torts. She also advises on human resources risk management, including employment agreements, employee counseling and separation, restrictive covenants, and human resource investigations.

Kate is often called upon to handle high stakes and sensitive litigation matters, including catastrophic injury, wrongful death, and health care and employment matters involving sexual misconduct. She handles complicated matters involving pediatric medical care and treatment and mental and behavioral health care with sensitivity and respect for all parties involved. When clients face a crisis, no matter how big or how small, they call Kate for her steady guidance and calm presence.

In August 2026, Kate joined The McCammon Group, a trusted leader in alternative dispute resolution for more than 30 years, as a mediator. Although separate from her client practice at Moran Reeves & Conn, the role gives her added insight into resolving cases through alternative dispute resolution, which benefits her broader practice. She is certified by the Supreme Court of Virginia as a mediatory in the commonwealth.

Peer recognition reflects her knowledge, skill, and professionalism. She received the 2020 VTLA-VADA Civility and Professionalism Award and is listed in The Best Lawyers in America® for medical malpractice defense and employment law, where she was named Best Lawyers’ Medical Malpractice Richmond Lawyer of the Year in 2015, 2019, 2023, 2025, and 2026. She is a Fellow, American College of Trial Lawyers, Fellow, International Academy of Trial Lawyers, and Fellow, Litigation Counsel of America. She is a member of the Boyd-Graves Conference, and its Steering Committee.

Kate is a Virginia Business “Legal Elite” in healthcare law, and is also a Virginia Super Lawyer, appearing on the Top 100 Virginia, Top 50 Richmond, and Top 50 Women lists and, in 2024, the Top 10 Virginia list. Virginia Lawyers Media named her one of its 2013 Influential Women of Virginia, 2015 Leaders in the Law, 2020 Influential Women in the Law, and 2024 Circle of Excellence, and in 2021 Virginia Lawyers Weekly named her a “Go to Lawyer” for Medical Malpractice. She has also been a member of the Irish Legal 100 for the last four years. In 2026, she was named as a 2026 Virginia Legal 250 Honoree in the Medical Malpractice – Defense category by Virginia Lawyers Weekly.

Active in education and the community, Kate taught trial skills as an adjunct professor at the University of Richmond School of Law for 19 years and served on the faculty of the Virginia State Bar Harry L. Carrico Professionalism Course from 2019-2022. She is currently on the faculty of the Virginia State Bar Professionalism for Law Students Program. Kate was appointed by the governor to the Virginia Interagency Coordinating Council and served on the Virginia NICU EI Collaborative Council. A former pro bono general counsel and board member of the Arc of Virginia, she now serves on the Board of Trustees of The Virginia Home, The Virginia Home Foundation Board of Directors, the Commonwealth Catholic Charities Board of Directors, and was Chair, School Advisory Board of St. Edward-Epiphany Catholic School for six years.