2018 AWARDS
Stephen P. New
Founder and Attorney, New Law Office
I have been the beneficiary of others’ generosity
my entire life. I simply attempt to be an extension
of the same generosity that was shown to me.”
Photo by Shawna Lilly.
BY JEAN HARDIMAN. While native West
Virginian and military veteran Stephen
New has received recognition for legal
excellence from his peers, area publica-
tions and the Association of Justice at
the state and national levels, his most
cherished accomplishments often come
in the form of a handwritten note from
a client, thanking him and his firm for
a job well done.
New, who runs his own firm, New
Law Office, in Beckley, WV, has always
aimed to serve hardworking West Vir-
ginians and protect them from injustice
at the hands of more powerful entities,
whether that means feisty litigation for a
personal injury client, lobbying the Leg-
islature on behalf of workers’ Seventh
Amendment rights, fighting for decent
pay for court-appointed attorneys or
doing pro bono work for a strapped not-
for-profit organization.
Law was a career he chose when he
was in eighth grade while growing up
in Gilbert, WV, in the 1980s as the son
of a coal mining foreman and a mother
who went back to college for her teaching
degree. “My younger brother, Jamey, and
I enjoyed a nice, middle-class upbring-
ing that taught hard work, kindness to
neighbors and the importance of educa-
tion,” says New.
He joined the Army six days after his
17th birthday and went to basic training
while still in high school. He then graduat-
ed from Marshall University with a polit-
ical science degree in 1994, where he had
been a member of Marshall’s intercolle-
giate debate team, Pi Kappa Phi fraternity
and the ROTC program. At the time of
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
graduation, he was also commissioned as a
second lieutenant in the U.S. Army. Then
he applied for West Virginia University
(WVU) College of Law, unsuccessfully.
“The most teachable moments have
been those where I failed at something,”
he says. “I did not get accepted to WVU
the first time I applied, but that setback
gave me another year of service in the
Army. I took tank training at Fort Knox,
and that extra time refreshed me and
allowed me to enter law school the fol-
lowing year ready to meet the challenges
ahead. During my 20 years of law prac-
tice, the wins and successes have been
wonderful, but I have always learned
the most when my cases did not turn
out as I hoped or there has been a trial
or appellate loss.”
New’s 20 years in the military were in-
valuable as well. “I believe I would never
hav