News

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Professor Valarie Blake has won this year’s Significant Scholarship Award at the West Virginia University College of Law for an article about insurance discrimination.

Blake won for “Ensuring an Underclass: Stigma in Insurance,” which will be published in the Cardozo Law Review this year.

In her article, Blake points out that the cost and coverage of insurance—whether it be car, life, housing, health, or disability insurance—varies by social factors like sexual orientation, age or gender, even though such discrimination is not allowed in other settings. Insurers defend this practice on the basis that some social groups are costlier to insure than others. 

Using social science research, Blake argues that insurers are prone to the same biases as everyone else and are relying on stereotypes, rather than objective math, to decide insurance rates and coverage. The result is that the same social groups who suffer discrimination elsewhere in life also suffer insurance discrimination. Laws and regulations are needed to address and minimize this harm, she asserts.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—Nick Gutmann, a rising third-year student at the West Virginia University College of Law, has been elected by his peers to serve as 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 practical and theoretical value 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 123 of the West Virginia Law Review, Gutmann will lead a team of fellow students to review articles and publish three issues during the 2020-21 academic year. He will also take the lead in organizing a symposium and overseeing the law review’s website and online edition.

“It is my hope, as editor-in-chief, to continue the law review’s tradition of publishing exceptional legal scholarship,” Gutmann said. “I also want to dedicate a significant part of my time to implementing a strategic plan, which was developed over the past year with the goal of improving the publication as well as the experience of our members.”

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—The West Virginia University College of Law has earned top national recognition in two areas that prepare students for their careers.

PreLaw Magazine has given WVU Law a grade of A in practical training and environmental law.

For practical training, the magazine looked at WVU Law’s opportunities in clinics, externships, simulation courses, moot court participation and pro bono hours.

WVU Law’s environmental law grade is based on the college’s energy and environmental law curriculum, the Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic, the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development, externships and student groups.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—Three exceptional West Virginia University faculty members have been honored with the University’s 2020  Foundation Award for Outstanding Teaching. This year’s honorees are: 

Vincent Paul Cardi, Bowles Rice Professor of Law, College of Law.  

Dawn Hunter, Associate Professor of Pathology, Anatomy and Laboratory Medicine, School of Medicine.

Scott A. Myers, Professor and Peggy Rardin McConnell Endowed Teaching Chair of Communication Studies, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — A First Amendment expert with extensive administrative experience at West Virginia University will guide the College of Law as interim dean, an appointment that will likely encompass the next academic year. 

Jackson Kelly Professor John E. Taylor will step into the role on July 1, upon the departure of Gregory Bowman who was recently named dean of the Roger Williams University School of Law. 

Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Maryanne Reed made the announcement Monday (April 13). 

“While we are sad to see Greg Bowman leave the University after his long tenure here, we wish him well in his new endeavor,” Reed said. “We are confident that that Professor Taylor, a well-respected faculty member and administrator, will bring a steady hand to his leadership role and help propel the law school the forward.” 

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — An asylum seeker from Ghana who said he was attacked by a mob led by his father because of his sexuality has shown a valid fear of persecution, a U.S. appeals court said in a case argued by two law students.

The petitioner, a gay man in his late 20s from Accra, said he had a secret relationship with a friend from his Muslim school days when his father found out in 2016 and flew into a rage. He said he was beaten, doused with kerosene and threatened with being beheaded before escaping, naked and bleeding.

He later made his way to the U.S., where immigration judges rejected his case, in part because it involved only a single attack. The initial judge suggested he could avoid further prosecution back home if he kept his sexuality a secret, according to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling.

Same-sex male relationships are misdemeanors in Ghana and can bring up to three years in prison, the ruling said. The Associated Press is not naming the petitioner at the request of his lawyer, Adrian Roe of Pittsburgh, who fears for his client’s safety if he is deported and hopes to have his name redacted from court records.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—It was a dream job for Hannah Steketee. The WVU Law 3L had earned a prestigious clerkship at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

Then, just two weeks after she arrived, COVID-19 forced the ECJ to close indefinitely. Now, Steketee is back home in Morgantown, West Virginia—but her trip was not in vain.

“I was able to do some really cool work,” Steketee said. “I learned so much!”

Steketee was assigned to clerk for Romanian judge Octavia Spinaeu-Matei. In her short time working for Judge Spinaeu-Matei, Steketee conducted legal research on the recusal laws of ECJ member states. She also worked on a European Union harmonized standards case and a case involving EU trademark law.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. —  West Virginia University and its divisional campuses in Keyser and  Beckley will extend alternative delivery of classes through the rest of the semester in response to the continued threat of the novel coronavirus COVID-19. Additionally, all employees – except for those needed to keep online operations running and a select few others – must work from home, and residence halls will remain shuttered.

“It is clear the pace of this pandemic will only continue to grow across the United States,”  President Gordon Gee said. “Our medical experts share that there is little chance of it slowing down – unless we quickly and accurately implement measures that can impede the community spread and ‘flatten the curve.’”

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Amanda Demmerle, a third-year student at West Virginia University College of Law, is a winner of the national Burton Distinguished Legal Writing Award for Law Schools.

Demmerle won for her article “Pain in the Ash: How Coal-Fired Power Plants are Polluting Our Nation’s Waters Without Consequences,” published in the December 2019 West Virginia Law Review (122 W. Va. L. Rev. 289). She is the second WVU Law student in three years to win a Burton award.

Just 15 law students from across the country are selected for the Burton Award. Demmerle and the other recipients will be honored at a black-tie dinner at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC, in June.

In her article, known as a “Note,” Demmerle argues that the federal Clean Water Act is currently the best way to regulate water pollution caused by coal ash impoundments in the United States. She discusses options within the Clean Water Act, and each option’s likelihood of success, to hold coal ash impoundment operators liable and reduce water pollution.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va.— The restrooms on the main floor at the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia are now fully accessible due to the efforts of the West Virginia Access to Justice Commission.

Based at the West Virginia University College of Law, the Access to Justice Commission is charged with increasing equality in the state’s justice system. This includes investigating the state’s courthouses for compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which marks its 30th anniversary this year.

The restroom improvements at the West Virginia Supreme Court include adding grab bars and electronic door buttons and reconfiguring the facilities for wheelchairs.

Attorney Duane Ruggier, a member of the Access to Justice Commission, raised the issue with the West Virginia Human Rights Commission, requesting that the court’s restrooms be updated to ADA standards.