Byrd
Rockefeller
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Charleston attorney Herschel H. "Ned" Rose III has been recommended by U.S. Senators Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller to serve as a federal judge in the Northern District of West Virginia.
Rose, a native of Fairmont, was recommended in a letter to President Bush by the two West Virginia senators.
"Ned Rose has an excellent reputation and a keen intellect. He is respected by the legal community in West Virginia, which recognizes that he is a smart, independent thinker," Byrd and Rockefeller wrote in the letter to Bush. "He gives every indication that he would be an outstanding jurist dedicated to the principles of fairness and impartial justice."
Rose was chairman of Byrd's re-election campaigns in 2000 and 2006, and he served as tax commissioner under then-Gov. Rockefeller from 1981 to 1985.
"It's a genuine honor to be considered worthy of that job," Rose said Wednesday. "It's also a sincere honor to be considered to follow Judge (Craig) Broadwater. He was a great patriot and a great guy."
Bush will make the decision on a nominee, who will require Senate confirmation. Senators often are asked for recommendations to fill federal bench vacancies in their home states.
"Ned Rose has the intellect and the integrity necessary to be an impartial judge who is guided by the law and the U.S. Constitution. He understands that the law is the foundation for liberty, and, without independent, free-thinking judges, our freedoms would be in jeopardy," Byrd said. "I am proud to recommend Ned Rose to be a judge in the Northern District of West Virginia."
Rockefeller echoed Byrd's praise of Rose.
"I have known Ned Rose for many years and he has all the right characteristics to make an outstanding judge," Rockefeller said. "Our state and our citizens would be well-served by Ned Rose serving on the federal bench."
Rose operates his own firm, Rose Law Office, based in Charleston, where he is a civil defense litigator and also practices in the areas of insurance regulation, state and local tax law, as well as in administrative and general business law.
Active in the West Virginia State Bar Association, Rose currently serves as the chairman of the Bar's Unlawful Practice of Law Committee.
In 2003, Rose was named a Fellow in the West Virginia Bar Foundation, an honor given to lawyers whose professional, public, and private careers demonstrate "outstanding dedication to the welfare of their communities and honorable service to the legal profession" in West Virginia.
Rose earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from West Virginia University, graduating from the WVU College of Law in 1976. He has practiced law in both the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia, and clerked for Chief Judge Robert E. Maxwell of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
His grandfather, Herschel H. Rose, was a judge on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
Rose is married, and he and his wife Barbara have three children: Caroline, Hampton and Ben.
Broadwater died in December after serving in that role for 10 years.