News by Jamie Kelly on West Virginia Record

West Virginia does an OK job when it comes to representation of people of color on the judicial bench, but is the worst in the nation in terms of the percentage of women as judges, and the reasons why aren’t clear, according to a law professor who co-authored a study on judicial representation.

CHARLESTON — When Chelsea Walker-Gaskins passed the bar in 2013, she already knew a few things. First, she wanted to work for herself, and second, she wanted to focus on family law. She especially enjoyed working on cases involving children and realized that while many attorneys took such cases, no one seemed to focus exclusively on them.

West Virginia ranks 19th in the nation for the percentage of so-called “middle market” companies in the state, which contribute an outsized portion to both tax revenues and jobs, according to the latest Middle Market Power Index from American Express and Dun & Bradstreet.

After more than five years of work, instructions that put complicated civil law topics into layman’s terms are in the hands of judges and lawyers in West Virginia.

With more than 450 children in attendance for the fourth year of its one-day outdoor adventure camp, Beyond the Backyard, a charitable foundation started in 2008 by attorney Bobby Warner, is planning how to make the event bigger and better in the coming years.