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Two West Virginia University College of Law students are helping increase access to justice for clients in need while adding valuable work experience to their credentials.

As recipients of WVU Law’s Sprouse Fellowship, rising third-year students Ashley Brash and Rayann Yocum are working for 10 weeks this summer in public defender offices.

The Sprouse Fellowship is a competitive opportunity that allows students to obtain their Rule 10 law practice certifications and appear in court under the supervision of a licensed attorney. Recipients receive a $5,500 stipend.

“These fellowships provide important support and staffing to busy public defender offices and their clients while giving WVU Law students practical, hands-on learning experiences,” said Jennifer Powell, director of the Center for Law and Public Service.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A rising third-year student at the West Virginia University College of Law is spending her summer helping give the state’s children a stronger voice in the justice system.

Zoey Vilasuso is working in the Princeton, West Virginia, office of ChildLaw Services as the 2021 recipient of the Regina Charon Fellowship. The fellowship is paying Vilasuso a stipend of $5500 for 10 weeks of valuable work experience.

ChildLaw is the only non-profit law firm in the Mountain State that represents children exclusively. Its mission is to advocate for the well-being of children through legal representation, policy development, and coordinated planning.

“ChildLaw Services was my first choice for this fellowship because I have always been drawn towards working with kids,” Vilasuso said. “I worked full-time at a daycare in Morgantown before going to law school, and my mom is a middle school teacher in Morgantown.” 

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Continuing a long-running tradition, law students at West Virginia University are spending this summer helping those in need.

More than a dozen WVU College of Law students are working as Public Interest Advocates Summer Fellows. They are helping at regional organizations that provide legal services to low-income clients, the elderly, children, victims of domestic violence, veterans and others. The program began in 1988.

Being a PIA Summer Fellow gives these students valuable legal work experience in areas such as children’s advocacy, civil rights, consumer matters, disability rights, and land use and conservation. At the same time, they are increasing access to justice for many people who cannot afford a lawyer.

“PIA Fellowships allow students to gain practical, real-world legal experience while they provide important support and staffing in busy public interest law offices,” said Jennifer Powell, director of the Center for Law and Public Service. “The fellowships have also inspired many students to provide pro bono legal services once they become lawyers and have launched hundreds of students’ careers in public interest law.”

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Kirsha Trychta, a teaching professor at the West Virginia University College of Law, has been recognized by a national organization for helping law students succeed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trychta, who directs the WVU Law Academic Excellence Center, recently received the 2021 Impact Award from the Association of Academic Support Educators. She was recognized for her approach to teaching students and connecting AASE members in the face of COVID-19.

“The last year has been extraordinarily challenging for the law school academic support community,” said Trychta. “To be individually recognized as having a substantial impact on the academic support profession during any year, let alone this year, is humbling and exceptionally meaningful. I am truly honored.”

Trychta is chair of the AASE Online Presence Committee. The national organization is made up of academic success professionals who work to make legal education accessible to all students. Members collaborate to develop and implement research-based teaching methods and design programs that help students succeed in law school, on the bar exam and in their legal careers.

Jim Friedberg, the Hale J. and Roscoe P. Poston Professor of Law at WVU, discusses the political situation in Israel that culminated on June 2, 2021, with the formation of an unlikely coalition to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Friedberg's expertise includes international law.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Marilyn McClure-Demers, a 1991 West Virginia University College of Law graduate, has been named to the Board of Directors of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

“As a leader in the private bar and corporate America committed to this work throughout my career, it’s truly my honor to join the board at this time in our country to help advance the mission of the Lawyers’ Committee — working to eliminate racial discrimination and advance social justice, " McClure-Demers said. “I challenge each of us to take an active role in this work and to make a difference every day.”   

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, was formed in 1963 at the request of President John F. Kennedy to involve the private bar in providing legal services to address racial discrimination. The principal mission of the Lawyers’ Committee is to secure, through the rule of law, equal justice for all, particularly in the areas of voting rights, criminal justice, fair housing and community development, economic justice, educational opportunities, and hate crimes.

McClure-Demers is vice president and associate general counsel at Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, a fortune 100 financial services company located in Columbus, Ohio. In addition to her law degree from WVU, she earned a B.A. in Political Science from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences in 1988.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Professor Alison Peck is the winner of this year’s Significant Scholarship Award at the West Virginia University College of Law. 

Peck won for her recent book, "The Accidental History of the U.S. Immigration Courts: War, Fear, and the Roots of Dysfunction," published earlier this year by the University of California Press.

In her book, Peck uses unstudied legal decisions from the Franklin Roosevelt and George W. Bush administrations to outline humanitarian crises that led to the modern immigration court system. She also argues that the fundamental flaw of the immigration courts is that they are under the U.S. Department of Justice — and she proposes that the courts become independent.

WVU Law’s Significant Scholarship Award is presented annually by the faculty to a fellow professor whose written work addresses an important public issue while demonstrating thorough research and clear and concise writing.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Two librarians at the West Virginia University College of Law have been honored by the American Association of Law Libraries.

Caroline Osborne and Stephanie Miller recently won the Outstanding Article Award from the Academic Law Libraries Special Interest Section of the AALL for their analysis of citation metrics.

Their article, “The Scholarly Impact Matrix: An Empirical Study of How Multiple Metrics Create an Informed Story of a Scholar's Work," was published in volume 39 of Legal Reference Service Quarterly.

The paper is based on citation data for 282 scholars from 57 U.S. law schools collected in in early 2019. The dataset also captures individual characteristics of the scholar such years in legal education, gender identity, and discipline in order to measure whether any of these characteristics impact either exposure or citation.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic prevented the West Virginia University College of Law Class of 2021 from having a traditional Commencement ceremony. Still, each member of the graduating class is being honored on the law school’s website.

This virtual celebration includes photos of the graduates and recognition of their accomplishments. Students also submitted personal photos, favorite law school memories, their inspiration for becoming a lawyer and messages of thanks to those who helped them along the way.

Interim Dean John Taylor, who was selected Professor of the Year by the Class of 2021, delivered his traditional commencement address in a video that is posted online. In his remarks, Taylor discussed the “value of embracing risk” and the opportunities that come with taking chances. Risk-taking, he said, is an admirable trait that often comes with great rewards. Discomfort, he said, comes with growth.

“I’ve always admired people who do not back away from fear, who do not back away from risk, who are not afraid to fail,” he said. “People who see only possibilities where others see only limitations… Trying things that make you uncomfortable or trying things that are new where you know that you might fail – these are difficult things to do.”

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — In his inaugural book, West Virginia University law librarian Nick Stump offers ways to create systemic legal change in Appalachia to help the region rebuild from centuries of industrial exploitation.

“I wrote this book because, in my view, more traditional approaches to law and social change are not up to the task of our current contemporary crises,” said Stump, who is head of reference and access services in the George R. Farmer, Jr. Law Library at the WVU College of Law.

“This is perhaps especially true in our home region of Appalachia, which is often characterized as an energy ‘sacrifice zone’,” he said.

In Remaking Appalachia: Ecosocialism, Ecofeminism, and Law (WVU Press, 2021), Stump outlines a long history of laws created to support industrial growth that has helped extractive corporations thrive in the region.