Professor
Kendra Fershee has accepted a tenured faculty position at Creighton
School of Law.
Joshua Fershee has served as professor of law and director of LLM programs in energy
and sustainable development law at WVU Law since 2012. He was also the associate
dean for faculty research and development from 2015-2018.
Kendra Fershee joined the WVU Law faculty in 2012 and served as the associate
dean for academic affairs from 2015-18. She is editor-in-chief of the ABA's
Family Law Quarterly.
MORGANTOWN, W. Va.—
WVU Law awarded degrees to 101 members of the Class of 2019 at commencement
on May 10 in the Lyell B. Clay Concert Theatre at the WVU
Creative Arts Center.
“As you go forth to live your lives greatly within the law, it is vital that you
do so with idealism,”
Gregory Bowman
, dean of the College of Law, told the graduates.
Vincent Cardi, who was selected Professor of the Year by the Class
of 2019, delivered the commencement address. He explored five general characteristics
of a good lawyer: show up for work; return phone calls; be honest with your clients;
do the work; and get involved in the community.
Cardi also added four more traits of good lawyers: courage, teamwork, organizational
skills, and independence.
MORGANTOWN,
W.Va.—WVU Law is about to become the first building at WVU to
help offset its reliance on the electrical grid with a solar panel array.
The 48-panel system will be
installed this summer on the College's roof. It will put an estimated
18,000-kilowatt-hours per year back into the law school’s electrical
system. A single U.S. home uses, on average, about
11,000 kWh per year.
“On
the heels of our recent extensive renovation, the College’s Sustainability
Committee identified solar as a real and untapped opportunity for not just the
law school, but for WVU as a whole,” said Jason
Walls, a land conservation attorney with WVU’s Land Use and
Sustainable Development Law Clinic.
Siemens Industry, Inc. has made a $43,800 donation to support
the project, which will cost $48,000. Additional funds are being provided by WVU Sustainability.
MORGANTOWN, W.Va.—WVU Law has been named a Top Law School by preLaw Magazine
for two programs.
The magazine awarded the college a grade of “A” for trial advocacy and litigation
and a grade of “A-” for intellectual property law. PreLaw graded the programs
based on curriculum and student experience.
According to preLaw, only four law schools rate higher than WVU for trial advocacy
and litigation and just 39 law schools score higher than WVU for intellectual property
law. There are 203 law schools in the country approved by the American Bar Association.
“The high rating of our trial advocacy and intellectual property law programs reflects
our commitment to preparing students for a broad range of careers in a complex
legal market,” said
Gregory Bowman
, dean of the College of Law.
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.
