The Honorable Michael John Aloi serves as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of West Virginia in Clarksburg.
Judge Aloi grew up in the small coal-mining town of Farmington, West Virginia. In 1980, he graduated from West Virginia Wesleyan College, where he received the Sheridan Watson Bell Award for Outstanding Christian Leadership. In 1983, he graduated from WVU College of Law, the only member of his class to receive both the Order of the Coif and Order of Barristers.
After law school, Judge Aloi worked in private practice for 28 years with his cousin, Timothy J. Manchin, in Fairmont, West Virginia.
In 1987, he was selected as a mediator for the Pilot Settlement Week Program in the Northern District of West Virginia, and thereafter he mediated over 2,500 cases. He is the only lawyer in the state of West Virginia selected to be a Fellow of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators.
Judge Aloi received an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the highest rating for a lawyer. He is also a recipient of the West Virginia State Bar Certificate of Merit, the Association for Justice Member of the Year Award, and the Pro Bono Attorney of the Year Award from the WVU Center for Law and Public Service.
Judge Aloi has served as President of the West Virginia State Bar, and Chairperson of the West Virginia State Bar Commission on Judicial Independence and the West Virginia State Bar Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee. He has been a Hearing Examiner for the West Virginia Ethics Commission, a Hearing Examiner pro tempore for the West Virginia Department of Human Rights, and an Impartial Hearing Officer for the West Virginia Department of Education.
As a Circuit Court judge, Judge Aloi established the first Drug Court in Marion County and he now serves as the Drug Court Judge in Clarksburg. He has also has established a diversion program for veterans in small claims court.
He is currently a board member on the West Virginia Judicial and Lawyer Assistance Program and a Member of the Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being.
Judge Aloi has been an adjunct professor at the WVU College of Law for 15 years. He also serves as an Instructing Judge for Basic Criminal Advocacy at the National Advocacy Center and as a faculty member for the Federal Judicial Center.
