News

MORGANTOWN, W. Va.—Professor Alison Peck has won this year’s Significant Scholarship Award from WVU Law for an article that addresses President Trump’s plan to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The in-house award is given each year to a faculty member whose thorough research, clear arguments, and published work directly contribute to our understanding of important public issues.

Peck won the Significant Scholarship Award for her article “Withdrawing from NAFTA,” which was published in The Georgetown Law Journal earlier this year.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – 2L Julie Merow has been elected to an executive position in the American Bar Association Law Student Division.

She is the first WVU Law student to serve in a national-level role for the organization.

The ABA Law Student Division Assembly elected Merow to serve as Delegate of Communications, Publications and Outreach. Her one-year term starts in August 2019.

In her new role, Merow will engage with ABA student members through multiple channels, including social media, “Student Lawyer” magazine, a blog and podcasts. She will also help the ABA House of Delegates develop policy and serve as its recordkeeper during meetings.

MORGANTOWN, W. Va.— 3L Stephen Scott has been selected a Law School Student of the Year finalist by The National Jurist magazine.

The level of Scott’s accomplishments and leadership in law school is dizzying. He is among the top 10 students in his class while balancing commitments to community involvement, student government, tutoring, and countless other activities.

A first-generation college student, Scott grew up in a single-parent household in Shepherdstown, W.Va. His family situation led to his interest in the law.

Scott is president of the WVU Law Student Bar Association and active in the College’s Community Service Council Public Interest Advocates and Black Law School Students Association. He’s an editor for the West Virginia Law Review and a member of U.S. Supreme Court Clinic, which had a case argued at the high court last December. Scott is also a director and secretary-treasurer of the West Virginia Fund for Law in the Public Interest.

MORGANTOWN, W. Va.—The West Virginia Innocence Project is hosting a screening of the award-winning Netflix documentary “13TH" on April 17 from 6-9 p.m. in room 153 at WVU Law.

Following the movie, a panel of WVU faculty and staff will lead a discussion on sociology, prison and race. Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Directed by Ava DuVernay, “13TH” explores the striking racial disparities in the criminal justice system. One-third of African-American men will spend some part of their life in prison, according to the Sentencing Project, which collaborated on the film. In “13TH,” DuVernay pieces together a historic look at race in America starting with slavery and ending with the institutionalized racism of the American criminal justice system.

“Advocating and creating change starts by opening a dialogue about mass incarceration in our communities,” said lawyer Hope DeLap, the current Franklin D. Cleckley Fellow in the West Virginia Innocence Project.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.— The Center for Consumer Law and Education has awarded its inaugural student fellowships to Levi Pellegrin and Brian Bowen at WVU Law. 

Bowen, a second-year student from Greensburg, Penn., and Pellegrin, a third-year student from Phoenix, Az., are helping develop consumer outreach and information programs. They are working this semester with Jonathan Marshall, director of the CCLE at WVU Law.

“Brian and Levi bring a unique perspective to the center’s work,” said Marshall. “Their initiative and enthusiasm for consumer issues are an asset as we lay the groundwork for the center’s future success.”

The CCLE is a joint program between Marshall University and WVU College of Law. Its mission is to educate consumers and partners about consumer law, assist with the development of public policy, and make a meaningful impact on the advancement of consumer law and policy in the state and nation.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.— Sandy Steel, a law professor at Oxford University, will deliver the 2019 Baker Lecture on April 10 at noon in the Event Hall at WVU Law.

Admission is free and the public is invited to attend.

Steel will address the right to private law for the 2019 C. Edwin Baker Lecture for Liberty, Equality and Democracy. The branch of law that deals with relations between individuals, private law includes family law, property law and contract law.

Steel is Lee Shau Kee's Sir Man Kam Lo Fellow in Law at Wadham College and associate professor of law in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford. He is a prize-winning author of two books on tort law, including "Proof of Causation in Tort Law" (Cambridge University Press, 2017). Steel has been cited by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the High Court of Australia.

MORGANTOWN, W. Va.—Quentin Collie, a second-year WVU Law student, has been elected by his peers to be the next editor-in-chief of the West Virginia Law Review.

The West Virginia Law Review is a professional legal journal that publishes articles of interest to legal scholars, students, legislators and lawyers. Founded in 1894, it is the fourth oldest student-governed law review in the country.

As editor-in-chief of volume 122 of the West Virginia Law Review, Collie will lead a team of students to review articles for three issues of the publication during the 2019-20 academic year. He will also play a lead role in organizing a symposium and overseeing the law review’s website and online edition.

“The legal writing process has been an interest of mine throughout my education and professional career, and being a part of the West Virginia Law Review provides an opportunity to get experience with different aspects of that,” said Collie. “I became interested in the editor-in-chief position because I wanted to make a more significant contribution to the organization and to the College of Law community and further develop my organizational and leadership skills.”

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — Two teams from WVU Law won first and second place in the 2019 Albert R. Mugel National Tax Moot Court Competition held recently at the University of Buffalo.

Sierra Williams and Emily Cramer, both second-year law students, took first place in the competition. In the final round, Williams was awarded best oral advocate. She also won best oral argument in the preliminary rounds.

Third-year law students Braden Noon and Hannah Williams won second place. They were also recognized for the best respondent brief in the final round.

The WVU Law teams were coached by Elaine Waterhouse Wilson, professor of law and associate dean for academic affairs. Wilson has coached student teams for tax moot court competitions since she joined WVU Law’s faculty in 2012.