News

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Across the country, the pandemic intensified a growing trend of increased rates of depression, anxiety, substance abuse and serious thoughts of suicide.

In response, the West Virginia University College of Law has hired its first in-house behavioral health counselor, Kathy Servian.

“An embedded counselor is a long-felt need in our student support system,” said Amelia Smith Rinehart, William J. Maier, Jr. Dean of the College of Law. “Law students deal with stress in a competitive and challenging environment and that stress continues even as they graduate and head to future legal careers. Kathy’s exceptional counseling experience makes her the perfect addition to our Student Services and Engagement group. Ultimately, our efforts to destigmatize and address mental health concerns will impact not just students in their daily lives as healthy professionals but the legal community throughout our state and region.”

A Licensed Professional Counselor, Servian has more than 23 years of experience in the mental health field. She has provided individual and group therapy to clients experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, grief and loss, relationship problems, substance use and gambling addiction. 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A specialist in international human rights law and business policy is delivering the annual Archibald McDougall Lecture at the West Virginia University College of Law.

Michael K. Addo will speak at noon on April 7 in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom. He will address the United Nation’s guiding principles on business and human rights and its impact on international law making.

Admission is free and the public is invited to attend. 

Addo is a former member of the U.N. Working Group that promoted and implemented the organization’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In that role, he prepared policy papers and thematic reports for the U.N. Human Rights Council and the General Assembly, as well as policy advice for governments, companies and advocacy groups. He currently directs the London Law study abroad program at Notre Dame Law School. 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University College of Law recently named attorney Stephanie M. Coleman program director of its Low Income Taxpayer Clinic.

As program director, Coleman will make free legal representation available to low-income West Virginians dealing with tax controversy matters. She will supervise law students working with clients to receive unclaimed refunds, to resolve tax amount disputes, or to assign tax debt responsibility.

The LITC is funded by a grant from the Internal Revenue Service, which recognizes West Virginia as being underrepresented in tax-related legal services.

Coleman is a career veteran of the LITC program, having managed clinics for Legal Aid of West Virginia and Rhode Island Legal Services. She has also been a team leader for the tax representation firm JK Harris & Company.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia will convene at the West Virginia University College of Law on April 5 to hear arguments in five cases.

Seating begins at 9 a.m. in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom, with the first case starting at 10 a.m. Admission is free and open to the public. The arguments will be webcast live on the court’s YouTube channel.

The Supreme Court of Appeals is West Virginia’s highest court and the court of last resort. The five Supreme Court justices hear appeals of decisions over matters decided in the state’s circuit courts.

The first cases to be argued fall under the Supreme Court’s Rule 20. These are typically cases of fundamental public importance, constitutional questions, and inconsistency among decisions of lower courts.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The West Virginia University College of Law is hosting an online auction to support students who work in public interest law.

The Public Interest Advocates Spring Auction begins on March 21 at 9 a.m. and ends on March 25 at 5 p.m. Proceeds help pay fellowships for students who work for low-income and at-risk clients at legal agencies in West Virginia.

To participate in the auction, bidders must register at 32auctions.com/wvupia2022auction.

Last year’s PIA auction helped fund 15 fellowships for law students to work at organizations such as Legal Aid of West Virginia, ChildLaw Services, Senior Legal Aid and Mountain State Justice. It also helped fund two other students working in public defenders' offices.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — S. Sean Tu, a West Virginia University College of Law professor, has co-authored a new book on U.S. intellectual property law.

“Fundamentals of United States Intellectual Property Law” (Wolters Kluwer, 2022, 7th ed.) is a revised and updated comprehensive review of U.S. copyright, patent, and trademark laws. The book introduces recent amendments to these types of law and examines their impact.

“Patent law is constantly changing with important topics such as the growing prominence of the Western District of Texas as a venue for patent lawsuits, changes to Inter Partes Review procedure, and the use of sovereign immunity to protect patent validity,” said Tu.

Major themes in the book include registration procedures; scope of exclusive rights; transfer of interests; fair use; rights in unregistered marks; protection of computer software, code, and databases; remedies and procedural issues in infringement actions.

UPDATE 3/5/22: Congratulations to Autumn Brehon and Brianka Yzaguirre of the University of Houston Law Center, winners of the 12th annual National Energy and Sustainability Moot Court Competition, arguing for the Appellee. Great effort by the second-place team of Chris Cerny, Eden Faure and John Schwieters from the University of Minnesota Law School!

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Students from a record 29 law schools are competing March 2-5 in the 12th annual National Energy and Sustainability Moot Court Competition, hosted by the West Virginia University College of Law.

The competition is organized by WVU’s  Center for Energy and Sustainable Development for students who want to work in energy and environmental law. It is being held virtually.

This year, 39 teams will grapple with legal issues related to the Clean Air Act and Migratory Bird Treaty Act. The moot court problem involves a fictitious federally owned electric utility company that operates an aging coal-fired power plant and a concentrating solar power facility.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Appalachian communities have long struggled with access to care, hospital closures, gaps in insurance coverage and higher prevalence rates of chronic disease — and the global pandemic has only created more challenges.

On February 24 and 25, the West Virginia Law Review is hosting a symposium to explore these topics at the intersection of law and health, seeking to understand their impact on rural Appalachia.

Health in the Hills: Understanding the Impact of Health Care Law in Rural Communities is being held in-person at the West Virginia University College of Law and streamed on YouTube.

Health care law experts from across the country will address a wide range of topics, including how finances affect medicine in rural communities, how technology can improve medicine in rural communities, how international factors can affect rural medicine, and how practices in rural medicine specifically impact Appalachia.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Several West Virginia University College of Law students recently spent a week in Wisconsin helping Afghans resettle in the United States.

Third-year students Tori Bruno, Aliah Hasan, Lauren Knowlden, Matt Regan and Natalia Watkins are members of the WVU Immigration Law Clinic. They worked at a U.S. government facility in January, assisting hundreds of Afghans who had fled their country following the fall of Kabul last year.

Immigration Law Clinic co-directors Professor  Alison Peck and Robert Whitehill, a Pittsburgh-based immigration attorney, accompanied the students on the trip.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A cross-campus collaboration at  West Virginia University will help the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service research and review its Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program, which has safeguarded millions of acres of productive farm and ranchland into perpetuity.

The NRCS has awarded a $3.4 million grant to the  Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic at the WVU  College of Law, which will partner with the  Energy Land Management program in the  Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Design on the project.

“A grant of this magnitude and scope takes WVU Law’s national service to a new level,” said  Amelia Rinehart, dean of the College of Law. “The project ultimately benefits the American people and it provides our students with invaluable work experience in land use law.”

Darrell Donahue, dean of the Davis College, agreed.