David M. Funk

On June 2, 2025, we lost our founder, David M. Funk. Bryan Bolton had the honor and privilege of knowing and working with David since 1986 and, together, they founded Funk & Bolton in 1996.

David was an amazing lawyer. At the same time, David was so calm and mild-mannered that sometimes you could forget David was the smartest person in the room, regardless of who was in the room.

One example of David’s incredible legal skills is the Local Government Insurance Trust. This entity was entirely a creation of one person – David Funk. He conceived it, he got the local political entities to join together, he drafted the legislation, he steered the legislation through the General Assembly, and then he drafted the trust documents. Finally, he served as general counsel to LGIT for years. The breadth of legal and personal skills necessary to pull this feat off is beyond incredible.

As good a lawyer as he was, the law never ruled David’s life. David was committed to his family. David made sure he was home for dinner with his wife Corinne, and his children, Cori, Nick, and Katie every night. Over all the years, David never deviated from his commitment to his family and being present in their lives.

On a personal level, and as the firm’s managing partner for years, David always treated everyone with incredible kindness and decency. Over the years, Bryan sometimes wondered whether David was too gracious or too kind in certain situations. With the benefit of hindsight, David’s decision was right every time.

David’s legacy in the law is the lawyers he leaves behind, including Bryan, Ren Tundermann, Lindsey Rader, and Derek Yarmis, who all benefited immensely from the opportunity to work with David. Working with David was an incredible opportunity. David never told any of us to adhere to high standards, but he never had to. You just knew that he was so smart and so careful that you had to measure up.

To give you some sense of what a kind, decent and generous person David Funk was, you just have to look to the fact that he and PJ Thomas (our Firm Administrator) worked together for thirty plus years. As anyone knows in the legal business, lawyers are notorious for burning out and burning through administrative assistants, but not David. David worked with PJ when we were at Shapiro & Olander and PJ was happy to come along with us when we founded the firm. David always appreciated PJ as a person and for what she did for the firm. David was spot on again.

David will be missed and cannot be replaced. All we as a firm can do is try to live up to his legacy.