Robby Aliff, president of the state bar and member at Jackson Kelly PLLC, mentions the Supreme Court’ s involvement in addressing legal deserts with mechanisms like Rule 9 and the Uniform Bar Exam score transfer, which makes it easier for lawyers from other jurisdictions to practice in the state.
Aliff says this expansion of justice is very purposeful.
“ The state bar has a dedicated Rural Practice Committee, signaling that this is not incidental— it’ s a strategic priority to encourage and support lawyers to locate in underserved counties,” he says.
For WVU College of Law, filling Appalachia with skilled attorneys is at the heart of everything it does. Aside from its collaborations with the state bar, the college hosts a variety of ways to get students interested in practicing in rural areas.
The college’ s law clinics, such as the West Virginia Innocence Project and General Litigation Clinic, provide pro bono services to many underserved communities, appearing in rural courtrooms across the state. In
WVU College of Law clinic students visit the Monongalia County Circuit Court. Photo by Leah McAllister.
conjunction with the West Virginia Fund for Law in the Public Interest, the college also has the Center for Law and Public Service, where students gain experience at advocacy agencies like Legal Aid of West Virginia or as public defenders.
“ We also have an active Clerkship Committee, which seeks to place students as law clerks with state court judges in rural counties, providing a pipeline to practicing law in the same area,” says Mary Claire Davis, associate professor and member of the Commission on the Future of the Practice of Law in West Virginia.
In 2017, the state bar also established the Rural Practice Scholarship at WVU College of Law, which offers tuition and fees for three years of law school in exchange for the recipient’ s commitment to three years of practice in a rural area after graduation.
Madison Martin received the Rural Practice Scholarship in 2023, and has been practicing in Petersburg, WV, ever since. She says the scholarship has not only relieved the financial burden of attending law school but has also introduced her to new areas of law and shown her how they impact rural communities.
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