2019 AWARDS
Joshua Weishart
Professor of Law, West Virginia University
The best hope we have of bending the arc of
the moral universe toward justice ourselves is to
ensure educational justice for all children.”
Photo by WVU College of Law.
BY CATHY BONNSTETTER. Joshua Weis-
hart, a professor at West Virginia Univer-
sity (WVU) College of Law, places great
value on education. He has spent the last
seven years conducting research on edu-
cational rights and is now recognized as a
subject expert. He aims to influence law-
makers when it comes to guaranteeing
equal educational opportunities.
“The best hope we have of bending the
arc of the moral universe toward justice
ourselves is to ensure educational justice
for all children,” he says. “That’s why I
devote my scholarship to the project of
leveraging the law to devise schemes of
educational justice that secure and effec-
tuate rights to a quality, equitable educa-
tion for disadvantaged children.”
Education helped Weishart overcome
his own disadvantages. Abandoned by his
father early in life, his disabled mother
and his aunt, who raised him as a son,
emphasized the importance of education.
Public schooling made the difference for
him, which is why he believes so strongly
in its function and purpose.
“I am mindful that it was a collective
effort that allowed me to escape poverty
through education,” he says. “I recognize
108
WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
that I’m very much the exception in that
regard, and that’s precisely why education
law and policy matter so much to me.”
Weishart graduated from WVU with
a double major in political science and
philosophy before receiving his master’s
degree in philosophy from the University
of Cambridge. Awarded the Truman
Scholarship, he enrolled at the University
of California Berkeley School of Law.
His aha moment came during former
Professor Gordon Liu’s education law and
policy course. “It’s where my passion for
civil rights found an outlet in education
law and policy,” he says.
Weishart graduated with his law degree
in 2006 and launched his legal career at
the San Francisco law firm of Severson
& Werson, where he represented some
of the largest national banks like Wells
Fargo and Bank of America.
“It was an initiation by fire at the height
of the mortgage crisis,” he recalls. “I
emerged largely unscathed and more
rounded with five years of significant
litigation experience.”
He returned to West Virginia to clerk
for Judge Robert King of the U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. King
taught him there is more to being an ef-
fective researcher than being able to find
the relevant cases.
“Every time I would talk about the
legal principles in the precedent, Judge
King would steer me back to the facts
in the cases,” says Weishart. “I required
similar reengineering when it came to my
writing. What took me eight sentences to
say, Judge King reduced to two. There is
a brilliance to that brevity, clarity and
accessibility that I try to emulate in my
own writings.”
As a professor, Weishart is tasked with
research, service and teaching. He also
administers the WV ED Law Blog and
maintains a social media presence. During
the state’s recent teacher strikes, his blog
posts were viewed by tens of thousands of
unique visitors.
He has also been published in the Los
Angeles Times and quoted in The Atlantic,
and a Delaware court recently cited his
scholarship in an important education
rights case. His white paper, “Long Over-
due: An Adequacy Cost Study in West
Virginia,” is slowly gaining bipartisan
support for legislation to commission a
study on the costs of delivering a consti-
tutionally adequate education.
Weishart has been the recipient of
several honors, including the 2018 Faculty
Scholarship Award, 2017 WVU Founda-
tion Outstanding Teaching Award and
2016 Law Professor of the Year Award.
He cherishes none more than the latter
because it came from his students.
Combining his passion for both the law
and public service has made his journey
unique, and leaving the state for new ex-
periences helped expand his knowledge
base. After traveling across the pond and
then across the country, he returned to
the Mountain State to put his skills and
knowledge to work and make his mark.
“It is surreal to be back in West Vir-
ginia and teaching at my alma mater
after more than a decade away,” he says.
“Now that the nostalgia has faded, I feel
an urgency to do my part to help fix the
problems plaguing my home state.”