Paul Farrell Jr .
Attorney , Farrell Law
Photo by Rick Lee .
EMILY RICE
AFTER GRADUATING from the University of Notre Dame with a bachelor ’ s degree in government in 1994 , Paul Farrell attended a West Virginia University ( WVU ) football game with his father , Judge Paul Farrell . At the time , Farrell was considering which law school he would attend .
After the game , the two took a walk through the WVU College of Law , stopping at his father ’ s 1978 class photo . His father proceeded to point to each of the people in the photo and list their current titles . From senate president and senior partners to speakers of the house and judges , it was a successful class and a successful lesson to his son .
“ He said to me , ‘ West Virginia is a family , and if you go to school here , the people you go to school with , you will see for the rest of your life ,’” Farrell recalls .
“ He told me if I wanted to come home and practice law , then there was only one place to go , so that is what I decided to do .”
The oldest of three brothers , Farrell grew up in Huntington , WV . Coming from a family of lawyers , he knew what profession he would choose . However , his eventual career practice would differ from that of his family ’ s .
After earning his Juris Doctor from the WVU College of Law in 1997 , Farrell returned home to Huntington to work for Farrell , Farrell and Farrell with his father and two uncles . It was in this position he was mentored by his uncle , Michael Farrell . While he thought his uncle was being too hard on him at the time , in hindsight , he sees the lessons he learned .
“ At that point in time , everything in my life had come to me easily ,” he says . “ I graduated from law school and went into the real world , and what he taught me was a lot of hard lessons on mental discipline . He taught me how to be a highly competent lawyer and to be undeniable . I have used those early lessons throughout the rest of my career . He taught me being talented is not enough . Hard work beats talent when talent stops working hard .”
After three years at his family ’ s firm , Farrell decided that defense law was not the type of law he wanted to practice .
“ They are some of the very best lawyers in the state , but my heart wasn ’ t in it . I can ’ t explain it any other way ,” he says . “ I left behind my family legacy , moved to Morgantown and begged a plaintiff ’ s law firm there to give me a job . I put my loans on forbearance , moved into a 100-year-old cottage on my father-inlaw ’ s farm and had two small children . I started from scratch .”
After leaving his family ’ s firm in 1999 , by 2006 Farrell had developed into one of the most successful medical malpractice trial lawyers in the state of West Virginia . He attributes much of that success to having worked from the defense perspective first , giving him a leg up by understanding the ins and outs of the defense case when he became a plaintiff ’ s lawyer . Soon , Farrell moved back to Huntington , continuing to work as a plaintiff ’ s lawyer focusing on medical malpractice .
In 2009 , he received an influx of medical malpractice cases with one similarity : a new medical device called transvaginal mesh .
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WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE