CHARLESTON – After almost two years after stepping away from the state Supreme Court, former Justice Robin Jean Davis is “back in the game.”
Davis, who retired in the midst of the “chaotic” impeachment proceedings for all five sitting justices in August 2018, recently renewed her law license and became of counsel at her husband Scott Segal’s Charleston law firm where she worked before she became a justice in 1996.
“I just decided I was going to take a break,” Davis told The West Virginia Record. “Come out west and regroup. So, I moved out to our home in Jackson, Wyoming. I spent a lot of time hiking and biking and trying to figure out what I was going to do next. The law has been my life. I loved my job, but I couldn’t take the nasty politics anymore.
“In August of 2018, I was very angry and very, very bitter. I just thought it was a total railroad job … a nasty political maneuver. I was directing all of my energies in a very negative way, and I’m not a negative person.”
But, she says her love of law kept calling.
“I’m too young and too energetic to just sit and do nothing,” Davis, 64, said. “So, I renewed my license. I was inactive while I was a justice. I started by editing briefs. It’s all been so challenging and delightful. I’m using my brain again.”
She has been working on a First Amendment case that Segal Law is handling regarding attorney advertising. She’s also been working on some talc cases against Johnson & Johnson.
“I have a totally different perspective now,” Davis said. “A totally different outlook. I had a wonderful 21½ years. But because I’ve now worked both sides, I now see every facet of it. It’s very helpful, I think.”
Davis said she is proud of her time on the bench.
“For 21 ½ years, I did my best to call it right down the line,” she said. “Anyone who knew me saw that very clearly.
“But I also was very active during the time I was on the court to make sure that women and children’s issues were properly addressed. I want to continue that scene. That’s what I’ve always done.”
That’s why she said the talc cases were a logical step for her.
“Johnson & Johnson has killed thousands of women who have died of cancer and mesothelioma because of the baby powder. The transition to working on those cases made sense, and the timing was perfect. I guess things happen for a reason, you know?
“And, the First Amendment case is extremely important because it’s about trying to muzzle lawyers and their ability to try to inform people of what’s going on. Again, that was a logical step for me.”
She said those two cases are keeping her “very, very busy.”
“It’s a never-ending learning process,” Davis said. “Anyone who thinks they have all of the answers are not being realistic. I learn something every day. I never stop reading.”
Looking back at her final months on the Supreme Court, Davis said she doesn’t really want to talk much about it.
“I said everything I needed to say when I announced my retirement,” she said. “Everything was truthful, and I meant every word of it.”
In her prepared speech delivered Aug. 14, 2018, in the state Supreme Court chambers, Davis said her retirement was effective the day before, which was when the House of Delegates had voted to impeach and censure her and the other sitting justices. She said partisan politics was at the heart of her decision.
“I deliver this statement today in dismay, disbelief, and in sadness,” she said. “I feel profound grief for the state of West Virginia given the current state of affairs. What we are witnessing is a disaster for the rule of law, the foundation of our state, and indeed, our very society.
“For when a legislative body attempts to dismantle a separate branch of government, the immediate effects, as well as the precedent it sets for the future, can only be termed disastrous.
“The majority (Republican) party has established a preconception which they bring forth, without regard to the evidence, or the process by which that evidence should be considered. The majority members have ignored the will of the people who elected the justices of this court. They have erased the lines of separation between the branches of government.
“In fact, the majority party in the Legislature is positioning to impose their own party preferences. The will of the people is being denied! I just cannot allow the finalizing of their plot to come to fruition.”
Following her retirement and the earlier retirement of Justice Menis Ketchum, Gov. Jim Justice appointed Evan Jenkins and Tim Armstead to the bench. They both won special elections for those seats later in the year.
Davis filed a federal lawsuit saying the impeachment “had no legal basis” before the state Supreme Court stopped the impeachments of Davis, Justice Margaret Workman and former Justice Allen Loughry on constitutional and procedural grounds.
Almost two years later, Davis said she still feels the same about the impeachment and related events.
“It was just an unfortunate series of events that occurred in West Virginia,” she told The Record. “I don’t think it’s helped West Virginia’s reputation as a state, and I think the public has suffered. I think West Virginia has lost a lot of extremely talented individuals who loved the state of West Virginia and have just gotten tired of the raw, nasty politics that seems to never leave our state.”
She said she feels Loughry and his actions did serious damage to the court and the state as a whole.
Loughry was convicted on 10 federal counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and lying to federal agents. He was sentenced to two years in prison and currently is serving his time at the halfway house in the Baltimore area, according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.
“Chaos is a good word to describe all of it,” Davis told The Record. “I feel very, very badly about how the Supreme Court employees were treated under Loughry’s dictatorship. Before I retired, he had fired over 50 people. I had objected to all of those.
“I was so adamantly opposed to what the majority of the court was doing. It was wrong on so many levels.”
Davis said many of those fired during Loughry’s time as Chief Justice were probation officers who specialized in sex offenses.
“Those employees were critical,” she said. “They played an extremely important role in the judicial system. They kept sexual predators in line, and he just had a total disregard for any of the people he had a hand in firing. Some of those employees were at the top of their games.
“It was just a matter of control for him … or his failure to control some of those employees.”
Davis said Loughry’s firing of former Court Administrator Steve Canterbury was particularly troubling.
“It was a power play because Allen was doing everything he could at that time to seize total control of the court,” Davis said. “He was building his own empire. Steve was an incredibly competent, good court administrator. He brought the Supreme Court of West Virginia into a national position.
“He was in leadership roles with national court administrators. He was on numerous national committees. And quite frankly, Allen couldn’t stand it. He wanted to put someone in the administrative office he could dictate to.”
Now, Davis prefers to look forward.
“I’m out here in God’s country,” she said of Wyoming. “There are more moose and elk than there are people. We’re in a pretty good situation with the COVID-19. We have an office here in our home. And now because everyone is working remotely, there is no difference between working here and in Charleston.
“I think this is the world in which we’re going to be living in from now on. It’s the new normal.”