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MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA – In observance of Constitution Day this year, the West Virginia University College of Law is hosting an event focusing on the 50-year-old Voting Rights Act.

WVU law professor Atiba Ellis and Capital University law professor Brad Smith will discuss the act’s past successes and future challenges on Thursday, September 17, at 12:00 p.m. in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom.

The event, which is part of WVU’s celebration of the 50th anniversary of the arts and humanities, will also include an audience Q&A and a reception. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA – A visiting professor at the West Virginia University College of Law aims to shed some light on the global problem of human trafficking.

University of Oxford Ph.D. candidate Rachel Wechsler will address “Human Trafficking: Risk Factors, Responses, and the Role of Victims” on Wednesday, September 9, at 6 p.m. in the College of Law’s Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom.

Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Wechsler is the 2015 Archibald McDougall Visiting Professor of International Law at the WVU College of Law, where she is teaching a course on international human rights. Her research focuses on sex trafficking and the criminal justice process in the Netherlands.

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MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA— WVU Law professor Patrick McGinley recently offered some insight into the ongoing court case against Don Blankenship, the former CEO of Massey Energy. 

Massey Energy owned the Upper Big Branch mine where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 miners. Blankenship is facing federal charges of conspiracy to violate federal mine safety and health standards, conspiracy to impede federal mine safety officials, making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, and securities fraud.

Presiding over the Blankenship case is United States District Court Judge Irene C. Berger, WVU Law Class of 1979,

According to the Beckley (West Virginia) Register-Herald, Blankenship’s attorneys have request two separate trials for the charges. The paper also reported that the attorneys requested that evidence of the mine explosion and laws related to the prevention of mine disasters be excluded from the trial.

McGinley told the Registered-Herald he doubts any of these motions will be granted.

“My view is that’s what prosecutors are supposed to do — present admissible evidence that’s prejudicial to a criminal defendant. What isn’t permissible is unfairly prejudicial evidence,” he said in the article.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—Jennifer Powell, director of the Center for Law and Public Service at the West Virginia University College of Law, has been appointed to the Equal Justice Works National Advisory Committee.

Powell will serve a two-year term on the committee, working with fellow members to expand public interest opportunities for law students and lawyers.

“I am excited to participate and use what I learn to help our students begin and sustain careers in public interest fields,” she said.

Before becoming the Director of the Center for Law and Public Service in 2013, Powell spent nine years as the assistant dean for Career Services. She is a member of the West Virginia State Bar and she earned her J.D. from the WVU College of Law in 1997.

About Equal Justice Works

Founded by law students in 1986, Equal Justice Works (EJW) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a just society by mobilizing the next generation of lawyers committed to equal justice. To achieve this, EJW offers a continuum of opportunities for law students and lawyers that provide the training and skills that enable them to provide effective representation to underserved communities and causes. To help foster public interest values in students, EJW collaborates with law schools to expand public interest programming on law school campuses and hosts one of the largest public interest law conference career fairs in the country, bringing students and public interest employers from across the country together in one place for job opportunities, networking and leadership training.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—Gregory Bowman, dean of the West Virginia University College of Law, recently appointed three faculty members to his leadership team. 

Professor Kendra Fershee will serve as the associate dean for academic affairs. She has been a member of the WVU Law faculty since 2012, teaching family law, civil procedure, and professional responsibility. Fershee is the associate editor of the Family Law Quarterly, an American Bar Association publication, and she will become editor-in-chief in fall 2016. She earned a J.D. from Tulane Law School and a B.A. from the University of Michigan.


Professor Joshua Fershee is the new associate dean for faculty research and development. The husband of Kendra Fershee, he also joined the faculty of WVULaw in fall 2012. A member of the college’s Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, Fershee’s research is primarily on energy and business law. He is also director of WVU’s LL.M. in Energy and Sustainable Development Law. Fershee earned a J.D. from Tulane Law School and a B.A. from Michigan State University.


Professor Jena Martin is serving in the newly-created position of associate dean for innovation and global development. A member of the WVU Law faculty since 2009, Martin teaches courses in business organizations, international business transactions, and securities regulations. Her research includes the growing field of business and human rights, and she hosted an international conference on the subject at WVU in 2013. Martin was featured in the “50 Under 50” list published by Lawyers of Color magazine in 2014.


Greg Elkins continues as associate dean for administration and finance, a position he has held at the College of Law since 2012. Elkins earned an Ed.D. from Texas Tech University and an M.A. and B.A. from Marshall University.






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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 — 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—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—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.