William & Mary alumnus and Board of Visitors member S. Douglas Bunch ’02, J.D. ’06, has been appointed a representative of the United States to the 77th session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, the White House announced today.
Bunch, a partner at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, will join the delegation as the General Assembly of the United Nations opens Sept. 13. The appointment was made by President Joe Biden.
“I am honored, humbled and deeply grateful for the president’s trust and confidence and look forward to joining my new colleagues at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and at the Department of State in their vitally important work,” Bunch said.
Bunch was appointed to W&M’s Board of Visitors in 2016 and reappointed in 2020. He is currently a member of the Executive Committee and the Committee on Academic Affairs. He also chairs the Committee on Institutional Advancement.
While an undergraduate at the university, he studied government and classical studies. He was also a Monroe Scholar, President’s Aide and member of Omicron Delta Kappa and Mortar Board. When he graduated in 2002, he received the Ewell Award and the James Frederic Carr Memorial Cup.
In addition to his time on the Board of Visitors, Bunch has served William & Mary in multiple ways throughout the years. He has been a strong supporter of the W&M in Washington program as well as the Office of Community Engagement. He was a member of the search committees for the university’s 28th president (2017-2018) and its sixth provost (2018-2019). He has also served on or is a current ex officio member of W&M’s Student Engagement and Leadership Advisory Board and Washington Center Advisory Board.
“Service is one of our core values at William & Mary, and it is one that Doug Bunch has long embraced,” said President Katherine A. Rowe. “Mr. Bunch is fearless and level-headed in his commitment to improving the world. We see that commitment in his legal career, in his dedication to educational opportunity for underserved communities as the co-founder of Global Playground, and his devotion to alma mater. He is a broad thinker with a gift for human connection – exactly what is needed in global leadership. We are deeply proud of him.”
In his role at Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll, Bunch serves as a member of the Securities Litigation & Investor Protection practice group and co-chair of the Pro Bono Committee. According to the firm, he represents public and private pension fund investors in securities and shareholder class actions, and has recently acted as amicus curiae counsel to Equality Virginia, the Commonwealth’s leading advocacy organization for LGBTQ+ equality, in filing amicus briefs in support of transgender students in Virginia public schools.
Bunch is the co-founder and chairman of the nonprofit Global Playground, which funds educational opportunities for children in the underdeveloped and developing world. He is also a member of the board of directors of Ascanius: The Youth Classics Institute, which he founded as his Monroe project while a student at W&M, and has served on the board of directors of Virginia21.
After receiving a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, Bunch returned to W&M for his law degree. When he graduated in 2006, he received the Law School’s Benjamin Rush medal.
Bunch has received multiple honors for his service, including W&M Law School’s inaugural W. Taylor Reveley III Award. For his work in law, Bunch has been named to Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers,” Benchmark Litigation’s “40 & Under Hot List,” and Law360’s “Rising Stars – Securities,” honoring lawyers under the age of 40 whose professional accomplishments transcend their age.
Erin Jay, Senior Associate Director of University News
