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When West Virginia University Associate Professor John Temple read an article about the country’s deadliest pill mill, he was fascinated by the story and wanted to uncover more.

The result is his third book, “American Pain: How a Young Felon and His Ring of Doctors Unleashed America’s Deadliest Drug Epidemic.” The book is the true story of twin brothers Chris and Jeff George, who ran an illegal painkiller distribution scheme through a Florida-based chain of pain clinics. The clinic’s physicians distributed massive quantities of oxycodone to addicts posing as patients—giving rise to a new drug industry that tipped the current opioid crisis.

In recognition of the book’s debut, the WVU Reed College of Media and the WVU College of Law will co-host a panel discussion, “American Pain: Examining the Painkiller Epidemic,” to explore the painkiller epidemic in the United States and its impact on society. The event will be on Monday, August 31, at 7 p.m. in the College of Law’s Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom. Temple says it’s important to have this public conversation about painkillers because so many West Virginians have been affected by prescription drug abuse.

“There’s not a person in Appalachia who hasn’t been affected by the painkiller epidemic in some way,” said Temple. “I’m hoping this event and my book will help educate the public about the deadly effects of opioids. Just because these drugs are prescribed by a doctor doesn’t mean they’re safe.”

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—This is orientation week for the 103 members of the Class of 2018 at the West Virginia University College of Law.

Since Monday (August 10), these future lawyers have been learning the ins and outs of law school and getting to know each other and the faculty and staff.

The WVU Law Class of 2018 comes from 14 states and two-thirds are from West Virginia. Students who identify themselves as a minority make up 11 percent of the class and 42 percent are female. The age range is 21 to 49 years old; the median LSAT score is 153; and the median undergraduateGPA is 3.35.

Students in the Class of 2018 graduated from almost every college and university in West Virginia, including WVU, Marshall, Shepherd, Fairmont State, Wheeling Jesuit, and West Virginia Wesleyan.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—Patrick McGinley, the Charles H. Haden II Professor of Law at the WVU College of Law, recently participated in a panel discussion on the future of the fossil fuel industry hosted by the Columbia University Law School. 

Titled “A Safe Future for Fossil Fuel Investments in a Carbon-Constrained World,” the purpose of the panel was to explore expert views and ideas about what safe fossil fuel investments would look like. The participants also formed a framework for constructive engagement between investors and the fossil fuel industry.

McGinley was joined on the panel by Jeffrey Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University; Ken Cohen, vice president for public and government affairs for ExxonMobil; Stephen Coll, dean and Henry R. Luce Professor of Journalism at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism; and Todd Kendall, senior vice president of Compass Lexecon. Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at the Columbia University School of Law, was the moderator.

The panel was organized by the Sabin Center at Columbia Law, the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

For more information and a link to the panel video, click here.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — West Virginia University College of Law professors Robert M. Bastress and Anne Marie Lofaso have been elected Fellows of the College of Labor and Employment Lawyers (CLEL).

Election as a Fellow is the CLEL’s highest recognition of outstanding performance in labor and employment law. There are just 14 Fellows in West Virginia.

Bastress and Lofaso will be inducted at the 20th Installation of Fellows on November 7 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, coinciding with the American Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section’s Continuing Legal Education Conference. They will join more than 1,300 members in 45 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

Lofaso is a winner of the 2014 Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award, the 2013 WVU Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching, and the 2010 College of Law Professor of the Year. She is also a multiple winner of the College of Law Outstanding Scholarship Award. Lofaso is a graduate of Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, and Oxford.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—The Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at the West Virginia University College of Law announced today its report on strategies that would allow West Virginia to meet the requirements of the proposed Clean Power Plan rule issued last summer by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Teaming up with Downstream Strategies, a Morgantown-based environmental consulting firm, the Center issued the report titled “The Clean Power Plan and West Virginia: Compliance Options and New Economic Opportunities” which includes strategies to comply with the EPA’s rule to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. 

James Van Nostrand, director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, emphasized that the goal of conducting the analyses and issuing the report is to provide West Virginia lawmakers and regulators an additional resource for evaluating potential compliance measures and pathways that the state could expand upon with future analyses.

“West Virginia is a major electricity exporting state and the compliance strategies that we adopt, and equally important, the strategies adopted by the surrounding states, will affect our state and the region as a whole,” said Van Nostrand. “It is essential that West Virginia be involved in regional discussions around Clean Power Plan compliance, and we hope that this report will provide an additional resource for air and energy regulators in our state as they engage in these discussions.”

The Clean Power Plan was originally proposed in June 2014 and the final rule is expected to be released later this summer. It identifies a series of pollution reduction measures to lower carbon dioxide emission from the U.S. power sector. It intends to cut emission by 30 percent of 2005 levels by 2030. For West Virginia, that means reducing emission rates by 21 percent by 2030, from a 2012 baseline.

West Virginia led a group of 15 states that responded to the proposed rule by filing a lawsuit challenging EPA’s authority to regulate carbon pollution from power plants. On June 9, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia rejected that suit and a companion suit filed by Murray Energy Corp.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—Two 2015 WVU Law graduates, Amanda Camplesi and Laura Hoffman, are mentioned in a June 1 USA Today article about President Obama’s federal clemency program. 

Camplesi and Hoffman, who graduated in May, worked on a clemency case in the West Virginia Innocence Project law clinic. Their client, Byron McDade, is serving a 27-year sentence for cocaine trafficking while his partners — who testified against him — “got no more than seven” years according to the article. 

After a judge recommended reducing McDade’s sentence to seven years served, Camplesi and Hoffman helped McDade’s lawyer put together a 168-page petition for a Clemency Project screening committee. The students spent 122 hours on the case, including gathering paperwork and visiting McDade in prison. 

The case is considered an early test of the President’s program to encourage nonviolent prisoners to apply for early release.

Read the full article: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/05/31/obama-clemency-initiative/27963853/

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MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—The West Virginia University College of Law awarded degrees to 125 graduates on May 16 in a ceremony at the WVU Creative Arts Center.

The class includes WVU’s first LL.M graduates in Energy & Sustainable Development Law.

Arthur Rizer, who was selected Professor of the Year by the Class of 2015, delivered the keynote speech. He explained how WVU Law students are special.

“They have truly amazing character and they have taught me patience, they have taught me a work ethos that I thought I had already mastered, and they have taught me that I can always be surprised by sparks of brilliance in the most unexpected places,” he said.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. –West Virginia University has named Greg Bowman the permanent dean of the College of Law, effective May 1.

Bowman has been serving as interim dean since the previous dean, Joyce McConnell, was appointed provost of the university by President E. Gordon Gee in June 2014. Bowman has been a member of the faculty since 2009 and served as associate dean for academic affairs for a year before his interim appointment.

“I’ve worked with Greg for several years and have always known that he is an exceptional legal scholar, teacher, and leader,” McConnell said. “We conducted a national search for our next dean at the College of Law and Greg just rose naturally to the top of the pool.”

President Gee, who was dean of the College of Law for two years before he first became president of West Virginia University in 1981, applauded Bowman’s appointment.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—West Virginia University College of Law student Ben Hogan has been selected by his peers to serve as editor-in-chief of the West Virginia Law Review (WVLR) for the 2015-2016 academic year.

Founded in 1894, the WVLR is the fourth oldest law review in the country. It is a professional, student-governed legal journal that publishes articles of interest to legal scholars, students, legislators, and members of the practicing bar.

“The law review has been around for more than 100 years, and with that legacy comes great responsibility. Not only is the West Virginia Law Review beneficial to practitioners and academics, but it also really hones the skills necessary to be a practice-ready lawyer,” said Hogan. “It is a great honor to be selected the next Editor-in-Chief, but I also recognize that there are 40 of us. I’m merely a cog in a very capable wheel surrounded by wonderful, smart, dedicated, and creative people.”

As editor-in-chief, Hogan will be responsible for publishing three issues of the law review that lend practical and theoretical value to the legal community. In addition, Hogan and his fellow editors will continue work on the WVLR Online, which was launched in March.