News

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — A new edition of a labor law casebook co-authored by Anne Marie Lofaso, the Arthur B. Hodges Professor of Law at West Virginia University, has been published.

The 2016 second edition of “Modern Labor Law in the Private and Public Sectors” (Carolina Academic Press) reflects recent changes in labor laws in several states and new debates over policy.

The book focuses on two modern trends in labor law: the shift of union density from the private-sector to the public-sector and the growth of organizing outside of the National Labor Relations Act process.

The casebook’s other authors are Seth Harris of Cornell University, Joseph E. Slater of the University of Toledo, and Charlotte Garden of the University of Seattle.

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — Veterans throughout the state will benefit from a $10,000 donation to the West Virginia University College of Law from a veterans legal organization based in Washington, DC.

Dave Meyers (right), director of case evaluation and placement for the Veterans Consortium Pro Bono Program, presented the check to Gregory Bowman, dean of the College of Law, during the Veterans Stand Down held recently at the Morgantown National Guard Armory.

The money will be used by the Veterans Advocacy Law Clinic at the College of Law to provide outreach and legal services throughout the state, according to clinic director Jennifer Oliva.

“We have a large veteran population in the southern part of the state, an area that has a high unemployment rate and a high rate of drug use,” explained Oliva. “As part of our land-grant mission and as the only veterans clinic in the state, it’s very important for us to be able to provide our services.”

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA — WVU law professor James Van Nostrand told a U.S. Senate subcommittee on October 5 that the state could benefit economically from the EPA Clean Power Plan.

The plan seeks to curb greenhouse gas emissions from coal-powered utility plants that contribute to global climate change. It is being contested by West Virginia and 23 other states.

Van Nostrand testified at a field hearing of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety in Logan, West Virginia, hosted by Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) with Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Congressman Evan Jenkins (R-WV).

“We have the resources and the people to succeed in this new energy game,” said Van Nostrand, director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at WVU Law.  “There is a revolution underway in the energy industry and, in West Virginia, we are getting killed by friendly fire.”

MORGANTOWN, WEST VIRGINIA—The West Virginia University College of Law is hosting “Voices Behind the Bars,” a dramatic reading of four stories from Bryan Stevenson’s “Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption” on October 10 from 7:00-8:30 p.m. in Room 154.

Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

The program is part of WVU’s 2016-17 Campus Read of “Just Mercy,” in which Stevenson explores the moral implications of the American justice system.

The readers for “Voices Behind the Bars” will be graduate fellows Imani Berry, Oluremi Famodu, Quinn Jones and Phillip Zapkin with honors student Emma Harrison and first-year law student Stephen Scott.