Monté Williams
Attorney, Steptoe & Johnson PLLC
Responses to client emergencies require
fast thinking, quick action and sound
decision-making. My state police training
was good preparation.”
Photo by Scott Frederick.
BY JEAN HARDIMAN . Monté Williams felt
drawn to the law early in his undergradu-
ate experience at West Virginia University
(WVU), where he focused on political science.
Law school was definitely on his bucket list,
but not necessarily with the goal of becoming
a practicing attorney. Instead, he planned to
put his knowledge of the law into his career
as a West Virginia state trooper.
It was after several years of working as
a trooper, though, that his path began to
change, and he decided to transition from
law enforcement to law practice. Today, as
a member at Steptoe & Johnson PLLC in
Morgantown, WV, he brings a wealth of
work and life experience to leading the firm’s
General Litigation Practice Group and Oil
and Gas Emergency Response Team. He is
also a member of the firm’s committees for
diversity, recruiting and litigation training,
and he serves as a mentor for the Leader-
ship Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD)
and students at the WVU College of Law,
where he received his law degree in 2003.
Williams, a state trooper,
in the West Virginia State
Police’s Jefferson County,
WV, detachment in 1996.
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
As a nontraditional student, the first month
of law school proved to be an intimidating
endeavor for the state trooper. “I was sur-
rounded by primarily younger classmates
who were extremely bright, full of confi-
dence, seemingly more conditioned for the
rigors of academia, motivated and sure about
how their legal journey would end,” he says.
“Once I found my proverbial sea legs, my
law school experience was amazing. Despite
all the challenges of law school, I loved it.”
For Williams, one of the highlights of
being a law student was the day-to-day
interaction with students and professors.
“My professional experience as a trooper
made me cynical and distrusting of people,”
he says. “Interacting with my classmates,
the professors and the law school staff re-
stored my faith in people, and I’m grateful
for that time and opportunity.”
As a student, Williams participated in
the Lugar Trial Association and the Moot
Court, both of which helped him develop
his skill set. “Lugar was, and still is, a
great way to develop both litigation and
trial skills,” he says. “I feel the same about
Moot Court. It is a great way to sharpen
your appellate skills specifically, and it also
gives you a chance to learn how to think
on your feet. As any litigator will tell you,
very rarely does an oral argument before
a court go as planned.”
He also joined the Black Law Student
Association (BLSA), which he describes
as a beautiful oasis for minority students,
particularly those not from West Virginia.
“BLSA provided a sense of community and
an opportunity to interact with students
from diverse backgrounds,” he says. “The
WVU College of Law rightly has an interest
Williams and his best friend,
Kwame Fisher, in 2007.
in qualified students who are diverse. At-
tracting those students can be a challenge
for varying reasons, and, assuming we are
successful in recruiting, what are those stu-
dents offered in the form of support once
they arrive? If they make it through law
school, how can we keep them in West Vir-
ginia? It is my belief that if we can show
those students a welcoming community and
make them a part of that community so that
they envision staying in West Virginia, we
are more likely to keep them in the state.”
Williams has experienced firsthand how
encouragement from others can make a
world of difference. When he accepted a
summer clerkship with Steptoe & Johnson
after his first semester, he says the guid-
ance and encouragement he received from
his professors helped alter the direction in
which he was moving.