Attorney
Tim Cronin, originally from Buckhannon, West Virginia, has spent the past five
years working with renewable energy developers to build projects that have delivered
affordable energy and job opportunities to communities across the United States.
He is on leave from the San Francisco office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati,
where he is a member of the energy and infrastructure practice group.
“We are fortunate to have Tim join us,” said
Jamie Van Nostrand, director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development.
“He is a talented and experienced energy lawyer with a national firm, and yet he
saw an opportunity to come back to West Virginia to do good during a time of great
transition for the state.”
As WVU Law’s Energy Fellow, Cronin is researching and promoting opportunities that
West Virginia has to create jobs and expand businesses amid the push by public
and private sector leaders to reduce emissions across the economy.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—It was a dream job for Hannah Steketee. The WVU Law 3L had earned
a prestigious clerkship at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
Then, just two weeks after she arrived, COVID-19 forced the ECJ to close indefinitely.
Now, Steketee is back home in Morgantown, West Virginia—but her trip was not in
vain.
“I was able to do some really cool work,” Steketee said. “I learned so much!”
Steketee was assigned to clerk for Romanian judge Octavia Spinaeu-Matei. In her short time working for Judge Spinaeu-Matei, Steketee conducted
legal research on the recusal laws of ECJ member states. She also worked on a
European Union harmonized standards case and a case involving EU trademark
law.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. —
West Virginia University and its divisional campuses in Keyser and
Beckley will extend alternative delivery of classes through the rest of
the semester in response to the continued threat of the novel coronavirus COVID-19.
Additionally, all employees – except for those needed to keep online operations
running and a select few others – must work from home, and residence halls will
remain shuttered.
“It is clear the pace of this pandemic will only continue to grow across the United
States,”
President Gordon Gee said. “Our medical experts share that there is little
chance of it slowing down – unless we quickly and accurately implement measures
that can impede the community spread and ‘flatten the curve.’”
MORGANTOWN,
W.Va. — Amanda Demmerle, a third-year student at West
Virginia UniversityCollege of Law, is a
winner of the national Burton Distinguished Legal Writing Award for Law Schools.
Demmerle
won for her article “Pain in the Ash: How Coal-Fired Power Plants are Polluting
Our Nation’s Waters Without Consequences,” published in the December 2019 West Virginia Law Review (122 W. Va. L.
Rev. 289). She is the second WVU Law student in three years to win a Burton
award.
Just
15 law students from across the country are selected for the Burton Award.
Demmerle and the other recipients will be honored at a black-tie dinner at the
Library of Congress in Washington, DC, in June.
In
her article, known as a “Note,” Demmerle argues that the federal Clean Water
Act is currently the best way to regulate water pollution caused by coal ash
impoundments in the United States. She discusses options within the Clean Water
Act, and each option’s likelihood of success, to hold coal ash impoundment
operators liable and reduce water pollution.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.— The restrooms on the main floor at the Supreme Court of Appeals
of West Virginia are now fully accessible due to the efforts of the
West Virginia Access to Justice Commission.
Based at the
West Virginia UniversityCollege of Law, the Access to Justice Commission is charged with increasing
equality in the state’s justice system. This includes investigating the state’s
courthouses for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which marks
its 30th anniversary this year.
The restroom improvements at the West Virginia Supreme Court include adding
grab bars and electronic door buttons and reconfiguring the facilities for wheelchairs.
Attorney Duane Ruggier, a member of the Access to Justice Commission, raised the
issue with the West Virginia Human Rights Commission, requesting that the court’s
restrooms be updated to ADA standards.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.— A new scholarship for students of color
at the West Virginia UniversityCollege of Law
honors the late Franklin Cleckley, who was the first African American faculty
member at the college and one of the first African American professors at WVU.
The anonymous donors have pledged $100,000 over four years
to establish the scholarship fund.
"Franklin D. Cleckley devoted his life to contributing
to law students, the judicial system, the underserved, the forgotten, the
ignored and the disenfranchised,” the donors said in a joint statement. “He
provided inspiration and mentorship to hundreds of lawyers who, under his
guidance, sought to provide high-quality service to others. Professor Cleckley
had a personal goal of increasing the undersupply of minority lawyers. It is
with much pleasure that we are able to establish the Franklin D. Cleckley
Minority Scholarship at the WVU College of Law.”
Cleckley, also a prominent jurist and civil rights activist
died
in 2017, taught at WVU Law from 1969 to 2013.
The auction will be held on March 26 at the College of Law, and it is open to the
public. Dinner begins at 5:00 p.m., followed by the live auction at 6:00 p.m. The
dinner costs $10 for adults and is free for children.
The
Public Interest Advocates, a law student organization, and the non-profit West
Virginia Fund for Law in the Public Interest host the annual auction. The theme
this year is "Roaring 2020." In addition to live and silent auction items, there
will be door prizes and a 50/50 cash raffle. Registration is required for live
auction bidders.
"The PIA auction is one of the highlights of the school year at the College of Law,"
said
Jennifer Powell
, director of the
Center for Law and Public Service. "Hundreds of community members, law students,
law professors, local lawyers and business owners come to the auction each year
to bid and raise money for the fellowships. It is a fun night for a great cause.”
Karim is a law professor and the leader of the Ocean Governance Research Group at
the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. He is currently
the
Archibald McDougall Visiting Professor in International Law at WVU Law, teaching
a course on climate change.
For his McDougall Lecture, Karim will discuss the need for an international legal
framework to create a sustainable shipbreaking industry. Shipbreaking, the dismantling
of obsolete ships, is harmful to the ocean, the coastal environment and local communities.
It is prominent in nations such as Bangladesh, China, India, Turkey and Pakistan.