CHARLESTON — A Charleston attorney is running for a seat on the West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals in the hopes of improving the lives of West Virginia residents.
Ryan White is a current board member of the Kanawha County Board of Education and an attorney at White Law Offices.
"I decided to run because West Virginia needs a judge that's going to be fair and impartial, and that's going to follow the rule of law and protect everyone's constitutional rights," White said in an interview with The West Virginia Record.
White started practicing law in 2005. He graduated from the West Virginia University College of Law and clerked for Judge Joseph R. Goodwin in the Southern District of West Virginia after law school.
In 2012, White started White Law Offices with his father and they have been practicing together ever since.
"I've always wanted to be a judge since I was in undergrad," White said. "I took a constitutional law class then and I decided that I liked reading about the law and the discussion that occurred in cases and trying to get the law right. That's when I decided I wanted to be a judge at some point."
White said when he was in law school, he was interested in the fact that West Virginia did not have an intermediate appellate court.
"I noticed that in law school we didn't have a lot of decisions that were published and that was because we didn't have an intermediate court," White said. "A lot of other states had decisions that were published a lot more. So, our common law wasn't as prevalent as it was in other states."
White said when he heard that Judge Thomas Scarr was not running for re-election, he was very interested and decided to run for his seat.
White said he believes the most rewarding part of being a judge will be serving West Virginians in a way that will really help them.
"I think that the most rewarding part will be to serve my fellow West Virginians in a way that will benefit them the most because I do bring the decision-making skills that are necessary and and I'll be able to make the tough decisions needed for that court and that would be very rewarding for me," White said. "The most challenging part is there's going to be some tough decisions that need to be made."
White said everyone is entitled to representation and there are some tough decisions, particularly in family law cases where cases can get very contentious and some of those cases will be a little bit challenging.
White said when he was clerking with Goodwin, he had the ability to go with Goodwin during a time where Goodwin was serving by designation on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals and that was when he realized his love for appellate work.
"I did some of the appellate work then and that was what more appealed to me," White said. "That was when I discovered I was really interested in that."
White said he wasn't interested in running for any previous judicial positions because he was only interested in running if it involved appellate work.
"I look forward to continuing my record of improving West Virginia's lives through my decision-making and my record through the school board and my private practice," White said. "I've been very focused on helping West Virginians and getting infrastructure built in West Virginia and helping bring jobs to West Virginia and working with small businesses to get loans in West Virginia so we can create more jobs."
White said he is also active in volunteer work and works with Generation Charleston and Generation West Virginia, helping to build up West Virginia.
The judicial elections will take place this month. Races are non-partisan.