Faculty
Melissa Giggenbach
Director of the West Virginia Innocence Project Teaching Associate Professor
Courses Taught
- Criminal Law
- Innocence Project Clinic
Biography
Melissa Giggenbach is a Teaching Associate Professor at the WVU College of Law where she teaches Criminal Law and serves as the Program Director for the West Virginia Innocence Project Clinic. Originally from Roanoke, West Virginia, she graduated Phi Beta Cappa from Sweet Briar College in Virginia in 1996.
After earning her J.D. from WVU College of Law in 1999, Giggenbach practiced civil and criminal law in Morgantown, WV, before joining the staff of the Preston County Public Defender Services in Kingwood, WV where she represented indigent criminal clients. In 2002, she opened her own office with a focus on post-conviction litigation.
Giggenbach became the full-time program director for the West Virginia Innocence Project Clinic in 2019, where she teaches the clinic seminar, supervises and advises third year law students in their clinic work, and appears in court, with and without students, to fight for freedom for innocent clients. Giggenbach and the clinical law students have successfully overturned convictions for clients wrongfully convicted of shaken baby syndrome and murder.
Education
- J.D., West Virginia University College of Law
- B.A. (Phi Beta Kappa), Sweet Briar College