News

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA – Articles by two WVU Law students have been published on the Oxford Human Rights Hub Blog (OxHRH Blog).

Tasha Frazie and Christopher Smith, both 3Ls, wrote the posts as part of their International Human Rights Law class this fall.

The OxHRH Blog, which is based at the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Law, “aims to promote dialogue between human rights researchers, practitioners and policy-makers from around the world.” It is a prominent global forum with a focus on rigorous legal analysis that has been recognized with an OxTalent Award and by the British Academy.

In his post, Smith addressed  citizenship rights in the Dominican Republic, particularly a new policy of retroactively stripping citizenship from individuals born to “foreigners in transit.” 

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA – Two experts from  West Virginia University recently participated in a workshop at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, to discuss the future of coal workers and their communities.

Rochelle Goodwin, WVU senior associate vice president, moderated a panel discussion on the current conditions and pressing needs of coal communities. She is the former director of state operations for Senator John D. “Jay” Rockefeller and a 2000 graduate of WVU Law.

Law professor  James Van Nostrand (left), who serves as director of WVU’s Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, discussed the trends and outlooks faced by coal workers and their communities.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) recently provided $150,000 in federal funding to the  West Virginia University  Land Use and Sustainable Development (LUSD) Law Clinic to support an ongoing partnership.

“NRCS, our partners and West Virginia landowners will continue to greatly benefit from this agreement with the LUSD Law Clinic,” said Nicole Viars, acting state conservationist. “We are able to continue our commitment through collaborative efforts to address risks and purchase conservation easements. In turn, we will be able to protect more agriculture lands over time.”

Since 2014, the LUSD Law Clinic has assisted NRCS with conservation efforts for more than 20 properties in the state, including farmlands, wetlands, and open spaces. The funds support the LUSDLaw Clinic, based at the WVU College of Law, and NRCS to conserve land and provide educational and other outreach services throughout West Virginia.

“The additional funding allows us to continue working with NRCS until September 2019 with greater capacity than before,” said  Katherine Garvey, director of the clinic.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA – In 2011, the United Nations adopted the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, establishing the first global standards for preventing human rights violations by businesses.

Four years later, a new book made possible by a  WVU College of Law conference is the most comprehensive guide to business and human rights. Published by the Cambridge University Press, “The Business and Human Rights Landscape” is edited by  Jena Martin, a WVU law professor, and Karen Bravo, an Indiana University law professor.

The book is based on papers presented at a gathering of global experts on business and human rights hosted by theWVU College of Law in September 2013. Organized by Martin, it was the first comprehensive conference on business and human rights held at a university in the United States.

“The Business and Human Rights Landscape” includes in-depth explorations of the U.N. Guiding Principles. It also presents practical case studies of current events, such as the 2013 garment factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 people, as well as perspectives of historical events such as the colonial slave trade.

The Supreme Court of the United States’ historic 5-4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) made same-sex marriage legal in all 50 states. On the front lines of the case was 2010 WVU Law graduate Jacklyn “Jaci” Gonzales Martin, then an attorney with Gerhardstein & Branch in Cincinnati, Ohio, and co-counsel for lead plaintiff Jim Obergefell (above). Not long after the ruling, Martin talked to WVU Law Magazine about her involvement in the groundbreaking civil rights victory.

I met Jim Obergefell and his husband, John Arthur, shortly after they were married in the summer of 2013. When the Windsor decision [declaring Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional] came down that summer, having been together for 20 years, Jim and John decided to make their union official.

John had ALS, and he did not have long to live. He was bedridden, so the couple took a medically equipped plane to Maryland and married on the tarmac. It wasn’t until Jim and John got home that it started to sink in for them that although their marriage was legal in Maryland and recognized by the federal government, their marriage did not exist in their home state of Ohio.

My boss, Al Gerhardstein, was introduced to Jim and John through a mutual friend days after their wedding, and our firm started dreaming about how to ensure that their marriage would be recognized by their home state. We knew that the state’s system for recording deaths would be one inevitable and imminent way Ohio’s marriage equality bans would affect this couple. There is a place on a death certificate to mark whether a person was married and the name of their surviving spouse. For John Arthur, unless we acted, he would be known on his last official record of his life as “single” and Jim Obergefell would not be recognized as his surviving spouse.

John T. Chambers, WVU Law Class of 1974, has been namd the number two “Best-Performing CEO in the World” by Harvard Business Review (HBR). Chambers is the executive chairman and former CEO of Cisco Systems. He is also a graduate of the  WVU College of Business and Economics. 

To compile its list of the world’s best-performing CEOs, HBR looked at companies that were in the S&P Global 1200 at the end of 2014. The magazines evaluated 907 CEOs from 896 companies (some firms have co-CEOs) as of April 30, 2015. Chambers stepped down as Cisco Systems CEO in July 2015 after more than two decades at the company’s helm.

To read Harvard Business Review’s “The Best-Performing CEOs in the World” (Nov. 2015),  click here.

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MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA— Rosalind Lister, assistant director of career services at WVU College of Law, was recently selected to fulfill the remaining 18 months of a term as a Regional Representative for National Association for Law Placement (NALP) Southeast Region.

Regional Representatives serve on the NALP Regional Resource Council and facilitate the flow of information between members and the NALPBoard, identify regional issues and volunteer opportunities, support the existing groups in the region, and participate in and plan annual education conference activities. NALP’s five regions are Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, and West/Rocky Mountain.

Lister joined the WVU Law staff in 2006. She earned her M.S.Ed. in Counseling & College Student Personnel and B.A. in Communication from Purdue University.

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MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA – In today’s competitive business world, entrepreneurs can face a variety of legal questions when it comes to protecting their original ideas and work, also known as intellectual property (IP), from unauthorized use.

To help answer some of those questions, the West Virginia University College of Law is hosting afree IP seminar for business owners, inventors, consultants, students and lawyers on Tuesday, November 3. Featuring patent attorneys and other experts, the seminar will be held from 2:00–5:30 p.m. in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom.

The keynote speaker is Craig Morris, managing attorney for Trademark Outreach at the United States Patent and Trademark Office in Washington, D.C. Presenters include experienced IP attorneys Dusty Gwinn, Monika Jaensson and Michael Smith, and WVU Libraries patent and trademark librarian Marian Armour-Gemmen.

Attendees will also learn from numerous entrepreneurs as they share stories about the creation and protection of their company’s IP.

Joshua Fershee, professor of law and associate dean for faculty research and development, recently spoke at the 14th Annual Kratovil Conference on Real Estate Law & Practice in Chicago, Illinois.

Hosted by The John Marshall Law School, the conference focused on “Fracking, Energy Sources, Climate Change and Real Estate.” 

Fershee’s presentation discussed the impacts of shale oil and gas on the future of personal and commercial transportation. 

“When gasoline and diesel fuels prices were climbing and with concerns about climate change increasing, the appeal of alternative transportation fuels was beginning to grow,” Fershee said. “But hydraulic fracturing for shale oil and natural gas lead to dramatically lower prices for both resources.”

Fershee discussed the challenges and opportunities presented by the various fuel options in this new landscape. He suggested that the most sensible fuel switch for most residential transportation would be to electricity, via plug-in hybrid.

“With one fuel switch, electric vehicles can run on any fuel — coal, nuclear, gas, wind, solar, or hydro — that is used for electricity generation,” he said.

The Kratovil is the only conference presented by a law school that addresses the policy and practical implications of issues of concern to the real estate industry and to the attorneys who practice in the field.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—West Virginia University College of Law is among just 20 law schools nationally to receive a Best Value grade of A- from The National Jurist/preLaw Magazine.

The magazines recognize Best Value Law Schools as those that provide students with “excellent chances of passing the bar and getting a legal job without taking on a ton of debt.”

“We appreciate the recognition of our efforts and results,” said Gregory W. Bowman, dean of the College of Law. “The faculty, staff and administration work hard to deliver the best possible legal education while keeping expenses for our students as low as possible.”

Ten months after graduation, the WVU Law Class of 2014 had an employment rate of 77.5% for full-time, long-term Bar Passage Required and J.D. Advantage jobs. The national average is 71.1%.

WVU Law also awards more than $2.3 million a year in scholarships and grants to help keep student indebtedness to approximately $24,000 lower than the national average.

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