West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals issued the following announcement on May 12.
Family Court Judge Kenneth Ballard will be sworn in as a circuit judge in a ceremony at 3 p.m. May 17 in the Supreme Court Courtroom in the East Wing of the West Virginia Capitol. Supreme Court Justice John Hutchison will deliver the oath of office.
Due to COVID 19, only invited friends, family, fellow judges, and media are invited to attend. It will be livestreamed on Judge Ballard’s Facebook page. Governor Jim Justice appointed Judge Ballard to the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit (Kanawha County) seat that became vacant when Judge Tod Kaufman retired March 31. Judge Ballard was elected to the Eleventh Family Court Circuit (Kanawha County) in 2008 and re-elected in 2016.
He is a past president of the Family Court Judges Association and a former Kanawha County Juvenile Drug Court Judge. Judge Ballard was born in 1974 and grew up in Charleston and graduated from George Washington High School in 1992. He was a member of the 1991 AAA Boys W.Va. Cross Country Championship team and was the AAA 800-meter State Champion.
He has a 1997 bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Marshall University and a 2001 law degree magna cum laude from the University of the District of Columbia David A. Clarke School of Law, where he was an associate editor of the law review.
After graduating from Marshall University, he worked for a year as an Environmental Scientist for Roy F. Weston. After graduating from law school, he worked at the Charleston firm Bickley & Jacobs, where he had worked during summers since high school.
He opened his own practice in 2004 and also worked as a Kanawha County Mental Hygiene Commissioner from 2006 to 2008. Judge Ballard is a youth softball coach and a Boy Scout volunteer. He is married to Allison Ballard, and they have three children.
Original source can be found here.