MORGANTOWN, W.Va—Prescription drug abuse will be the focus of the 2014 West Virginia Law Review Symposium on Thursday, Feb. 13 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom at the West Virginia University College of Law. Admissions is free and open to the public.
The symposium will feature a select group of experts examining a range of topics including policy, liability, and sentencing guidelines related to prescription drug abuse in West Virginia and beyond. Senator Joseph Manchin (D-W.Va.) is scheduled to deliver the keynote address.
“What we’re trying to do is take a look at what the law is doing well and what it’s not doing well so we can start a discussion about who we need to work with and what we need to do to handle it better,” said Imad Matini, editor-in-chief of the West Virginia Law Review.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) classifies prescription drug abuse as a national epidemic. According to the CDC, 1 in 20 people age 12 or older in the United States have used prescription painkillers for non-medical reasons.
West Virginia’s Department of Health and Human Resources says deaths from prescription drug overdoses in the state rose 218% between 2002 and 2010, from 291 to 927.
Manchin helped introduce the Safe Prescribing Act of 2013, a piece of federal legislation that aims to reclassify drugs containing hydrocodone in an attempt to restrict access to certain drugs and ultimately combat and prevent prescription drug abuse. The bill is currently in committee, but the Federal Drug Administration heeded Manchin and the bill’s other sponsors when it recommended the reclassification of hydrocodone to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in October 2013.
Gostin’s lecture at WVU will focus on social justice issues within global health and what it will take to identify and implement a unified vision for reform.
Gostin directs the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, where he is the Founding O’Neill Chair in Global Health Law. He is Professor of Medicine at Georgetown University, Professor of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University, and Director of the Center for Law & the Public’s Health at both institutions.
A key contributor to major U.S. and international health law reform initiatives, Gostin is also the Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights. He has brought several landmark cases before the European Commission and Court of Human Rights.
The John W. Fisher II Lecture in Law and Medicine was established through the generosity of Thomas S. Clark, M.D., and Jean Clark. The Clark Family Lecture Series, funded by a half-million dollar pledge in 1998, provides lectures in 10 fields of study throughout West Virginia University. A member of the faculty since 1968, Fisher is the William J. Maier, Jr. Dean Emeritus and the Robert M. Steptoe and James D. Steptoe Professor of Property Law.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Jackson Kelly PLLC recently promoted WVU College of Law graduates Christina T. Brumley, Alaina N. Crislip, Seth P. Hayes, and Kevin R. Waldo to membership status effective Jan. 1, 2014.
Brumley’s practice focuses on acquisitions and divestitures, commercial transactions, and mineral and property rights issues. Her experience includes commercial litigation, including contract and property rights disputes, business torts and shareholder litigation. Brumley has also advised clients on communications law, representing broadcasters in matters before the FCC and advising them in defamation and advertising law. She received her B.S. in business administration from WVU’s College of Business and Economics in 1993 _summa cum laude _and her JD from the WVU College of Law in 1998.
Crislip represents a variety of health care provider organizations, including hospitals and physicians. She routinely advises clients in matters involving health care regulations and litigation, with an emphasis on compliance advice to providers under HIPAA, Stark, Anti Kickback, and other state and federal laws. Crislip earned her JD from the WVU College of Law in 2003.
Hayes practices in Jackson Kelly’s Industrial, Environmental and Complex Litigation Practice Group in the Morgantown, W.Va., office. Prior to starting at Jackson Kelly, Hayes clerked for the Honorable David A. Faber of the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. He earned his JD (Order of the Coif) from the WVU College of Law in 2006. He also hold a B.S. in finance and a B.A. in foreign languages from WVU.
While slogging through Freudian concepts and Pavlov’s classical conditioning techniques in pursuit of her psychology degree, Alicia Lauderman’s career goals swiftly deviated off course.
That course took her from her undergraduate degree to the West Virginia University College of Law, from which she graduated on December 20 to begin a career designed to helping children.
A mother of two, Lauderman always had a tender spot in her heart for children. One Sunday morning’s paper acted as a catalyst and took her studies from childhood psychology to enacting laws regarding children.
The fellowships will allow Oluyemi and Robinson to practice law at a West Virginia
public interest organization for one year beginning in fall of 2014.
The permit was initially granted in 2007 by the Army Corps of Engineers for the mountain top removal mine that would discharge fill into two nearby streams. Three years later, the EPA withdrew the use of the two streams as disposal sites.
Mingo Logan Coal says the D.C. Circuit ruling gives too much authority to the EPA and jeopardizes any project across the county that requires a Clean Water Act permit. Those projects represent an annual investment of $220 billion, according to the petitioners.
However, McGinley told Law360 that a single enforcement action over the four decades since the Clean Water Act was passed won’t do much to unsettle the markets and will not draw the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The West Virginia University College of Law ranks 16th in the
nation for the most alumni leading publicly traded companies, according to new
research. The findings come from Robert Anderson, associate professor of law at
Pepperdine University.
Using data from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Anderson recently determined
the top 25 law schools with the highest percentage of alumni serving as corporate
directors or executive officers. He writes about his research in his blog,
Witnesseth: Law, Deals, & Data.
While Anderson’s rankings closely match the standard law school hierarchy, he told
The National Law Journal that “a handful of law schools performed better
on the corporate boardroom analysis than their
U.S. News & World Report rankings would indicate.” WVU Law’s
No. 16 on the corporate leadership list is higher than its No. 91
U.S. News Best Law Schools ranking.
In his blog, Anderson writes “West Virginia manages to break into the top 25, largely
because of its small size and critical mass of graduates in public company positions.”
In planning for its future, West Virginia should take a closer look at smaller countries like Denmark or South Korea, according to Gregory Bowman, WVU Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs.
Bowman has spent a lot of time in South Korea as head of a legal study abroad program there, and he lived in Denmark as an exchange student.
“Both places offer interesting perspectives on West Virginia,” he suggested at Creative WV.
Both countries emphasize a quality education, which results in highly educated workforces that support high tech industries, solid growth, and an overall high quality of life, Bowman pointed out.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia University College of Law Professor Valena Beety
recently spent two weeks in residence at the University of Texas School of Law
as part of the Big XII Faculty Fellowship Program.
She was one of just six WVU faculty who were selected to participate in
the program this year.
The Big XII Faculty Fellowship Program was created to stimulate scholarly
initiatives through creation of an academic community within the institutions in
the Big XII Athletic Conference.
As a Big XII Fellow, Beety researched the growing roles of clemency and
forensic science in the Texas and West Virginia state criminal justice systems.
Her research included a focus on executive and judicial clemency and forensic findings
in capital punishment cases. Texas has executed more inmates than any other state.
There is no death penalty in West Virginia.
Argetsinger is a 2013 graduate of Pace University School of Law and he holds a master’s degree in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. His experience includes internships at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Enforcement and with the litigation team at the Natural Resources Defense Council in New York.
Argetsinger’s recent scholarship has focused on regulation of greenhouse gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act. It’s a priority issue for the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development over the next few months. He has also written in the areas of shale gas development, interest electric transmission facilities, and integration of renewable energy resources.
As the Fellow for Energy and Environmental Law and Policy, Argetsinger will support the research and scholarship of the center’s affiliated faculty, law professors Patrick McGinley, Joshua Fershee, and Alison Peck.
Argetsinger will also maintain and contribute to the center’s blog, Energy Forward, and help prepare for the College of Law’s new LL.M.in Energy and Sustainable Development Law. Pending approval by the American Bar Association, the LL.M. will be offered in fall 2014.
“We are very pleased to have Beren join us,” said James Van Nostrand, associate professor of law and director of the center. “The field of candidates included graduates from some of the leading law schools in the country. Beren has the impressive academic credentials and experience that will be an asset to the work of the energy center.”
The Center for Energy and Sustainable Development was established at WVU in 2011 to conduct objective, unbiased research and policy analyses; provide a forum for issues to be explored by stakeholders; and to promote policies that strike a balance between the development of energy resources and the protection of the valuable air and water supplies upon which future generations will depend.
