HUNTINGTON — A Huntington attorney has established a scholarship at West Virginia University College of Law to help ease the burden for a law student from his hometown.
Marc Williams, a graduate of WVU and Marshall University and managing partner at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Huntington, created the Marc E. Williams Endowed Law Scholarship because he understands how expensive education is now. The scholarship is for $50,000.
"When I went to school, it was a fraction of what it costs today," Williams said in an interview with The West Virginia Record. "I've always said if I got to the point where I was able to give back, I wanted to do this."
Williams
Williams said having kids and going through the process of going to school, he knows how tough paying tuition can be.
"I've got one out of college, one in college and one on the way," Williams said. "I know what a burden it can be on families, so I wanted to be able to help a student out who might be in the position where maybe they wouldn't be able to go to law school but for a scholarship to help them pay for it."
Williams started a scholarship at Marshall University last year called the Marc E. Williams Scholarship, and then decided to set one up at WVU this year.
"I wanted to help a student out," Williams said. "It's set up for a Marshall graduate going to WVU's law school and if there isn't a Marshall graduate available, it will then go to someone in Wayne or Cabell County going to the law school."
Williams said he set the scholarship up for a Marshall graduate or a person from either Cabell or Wayne County because he wanted to help someone close to home.
"There has been a long line of people who have gone to Marshall and went on to law school in Morgantown and a lot of them practice in this area and in Charleston, so hopefully, this will help someone out and make the burden of getting a graduate education a little less problematic," Williams said.
Williams's father was a member of the faculty at Marshall. He and his brother, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams both graduated from Marshall.
Williams was named a 2018 and 2019 Local Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation for his appellate, general commercial, and product liability work.
He was also selected for the 2017 Lawyers and Leaders inaugural class by West Virginia Executive Magazine and WVU Law. He served as an adjunct professor of sports law at Marshall University and has served as president of Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia, DRI-The Voice of the Defense Bar, Lawyers for Civil Justice and the National Foundation for Judicial Excellence.
