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(Editor's Note: A story on Division 2 candidates will run on Sunday.)
CHARLESTON -- Ten attorneys are running for the Division 1 vacancy on the West Virginia Supreme Court.
They are Tim Armstead, Harry C. "Bo" Bruner Jr., Robert H. Carlton, Ronald H. Hatfield Jr., Mark Hunt, Hiram "Buck" Lewis IV, D.C. Offutt Jr., Joanna I. Tabit, Chris Wilkes and Jeff C. Woods.
The winner in the non-partisan election serves until May 2020.
∫ Tim Armstead of Elkview was appointed as a temporary justice on the Supreme Court by Gov. Jim Justice in September. He will serve until Nov. 6, when voters choose a new justice for Division 1.
Armstead is the former Republican speaker of the West Virginia House of Delegates and a 20-year member of House representing the 40th District in Kanawha County. He was elected speaker in 2015 after the Republican Party took the majority in the House. He declined to run for re-election to the House this year.
Armstead has a bachelor's from the University of Charleston and is a graduate of the West Virginia University College of Law. He worked for the late Gov. Arch Moore as a press intern and later as an executive assistant in the administration of the late Gov. Cecil Underwood. Armstead has experience as a law clerk for U.S. District Judge David A. Faber. Armstead most recently was an attorney in the natural gas industry.
∫ Harry Bruner Jr. of Charleston is a 1975 graduate of the WVU College of Law. He has a bachelor's from the University of Charleston and a master's from WVU.
He was most recently employed in the West Virginia Attorney General's Office as an assistant attorney general. He ran for U.S. Senate as a Republican. His legal career has included arguments in federal appellate courts. His specialties include employment law, tax law, administrative law, FOIA, grant law, state purchasing law, eminent domain law and injunction law.
During his time in state government, Bruner drafted new accountability and transparency standards for vendors doing business with the states.
Robert Carlton of Williamson is a bankruptcy and personal injury attorney with 29 years of experience. He is graduate from Oral Roberts University and received his law degree from the Regent University Law School in 1986. He also has a master's in business administration from WVU.
Carlton has won two American Jurisprudence Awards for insurance law and wills, trusts and estates. He returned to Williamson after law school and opened his practice that focused on family law and defense.
Carlton was an assistant prosecuting attorney in Mingo County from 1992 to 1994. He also was a child advocate attorney for Mingo and Logan counties from 1987 to 1990. He is a former mayor of Williamson. Carleton is admitted to state and federal courts in West Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina.
Ronald Hatfield of Huntington is the local managing partner for Litchfield Cavo in Barboursville. He is a 2000 graduate of the WVU College of Law and also has degrees from Marshall University.
Hatfield is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, serving in Saudi Arabia during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He returned to Cabell County and started a law firm before joining Litchfield Cavo, a national firm with offices in 36 states.
His focus is commercial and business law with 18 years of courtroom experience.
Mark Hunt of Charleston is a former member of the House of Delegates representing the 36th district in Kanawha County. He has served in the House off and on since 1995 and has been a candidate for West Virginia Senate and U.S. House of Representatives.
Hunt received a bachelor's degree from the University of Charleston in 1982 and a master's from Marshall University in 1984. He was an analyst for the West Virginia Legislature before graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. After law school, Hunt worked for the State Auditor's Office.
Hunt co-founded the Hunt and Serreno law firm in 1994 and practices law at Mark A. Hunt & Associates in Charleston where he focuses on personal injury, DUI defense, car wrecks and nursing home abuse.
Hiram Lewis IV of Procious is a 2001 graduate of the WVU Law School, a 2004 candidate for West Virginia attorney general and a 2006 candidate for U.S. Senate. He retired from the West Virginia National Guard in 2010.
During his time in the U.S Army and West Virginia National Guard, Lewis served three years with the 3rd Ranger Battalion at Fort Benning, Ga. He joined the National Guard and became a judge advocate general officer stationed with the 111th Engineer Brigade during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Aside from his law degree, Lewis also has degrees from WVU in finance, accounting, and a master's in athletic coaching. He is a former treasurer for the West Virginia Republican Party.
According to media reports, Lewis was acquitted in 2013 of malicious wounding and domestic assault for shooting a person who claimed to live with Lewis.
D.C. Offutt Jr. of Barboursville is a managing member of the Offutt Nord Ashworth law firm in Huntington. He is a former deputy director of the former West Virginia Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. He is a 1978 graduate of the WVU College of Law.
Offutt has helped with judicial reform initiatives, including serving on the Commission on the Future of the West Virginia Judicial System from 1997 to 1998. In 2000 he served on the state Supreme Court's Pattern Jury Instructions Committee. Offutt was also president of the West Virginia State Bar, the state agency attorneys must join to practice law in West Virginia.
Joanna Tabit of Charleston is a circuit court judge for the 13th Judicial Circuit in Kanawha County, the largest circuit in the state. Tabit was appointed as a circuit judge by former Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin in 2014.
Tabit is a 1983 graduate of Marshall University and a 1986 graduate of the WVU College of Law. After law school, she clerked for former state Supreme Court Justice Thomas McHugh. She also worked as a state assistant attorney general from 1989 to 1992, serving two attorneys general before joining the Steptoe and Johnson law firm in 1992.
Tabit has chaired the Access to Justice Foundation, served as a member of Board of Governors of the West Virginia State Bar; and served as a Commissioner on the City of Charleston Human Rights Commission. She is a member of the Juvenile Justice Commission and Mass Litigation Panel and is a former member of the Business Court. Tabit also presides over Kanawha County's Juvenile Drug Court.
Chris Wilkes of Martinsburg is a circuit court judge serving the 23rd circuit in Berkeley, Jefferson and Morgan counties since 1993. A 1982 graduate of the Ohio Northern University Pettit College of Law, Wilkes was a partner in his own law firm until being elected to circuit court. He also has a political science degree from WVU.
Wilkes was a municipal judge in Martinsburg and Ranson starting in 1985 and helped develop the West Virginia Business Court Division, of which he is chairman. He has held multiple offices in the West Virginia Judicial Association, including secretary, treasurer, vice president and immediate past president.
Wilkes is the chairman of the Youth Services Committee of the Court Improvement Board and is a member of the Juvenile Justice Commission. He has been appointed several times to sit as a temporary Justice on the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
Jeff Woods of Scott Depot is a graduate of West Virginia State University with a degree in sociology and a 1979 graduate of Howard University School of Law.
During his career, Woods served as a legal clerk with the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and was chosen as the acting director for the state's Magistrate Court System.
Woods served in the U.S Army as a 2nd lieutenant and entered active duty as a JAG Officer with the 5th Infantry Division at Fort Polk, Louisiana, in 1980. He later went to work for the Jackson Kelly law firm but remained a JAG officer in the West Virginia National Guard and U.S. Army Reserves with the rank of major.
After 25 years of work for Jackson Kelly, Woods retired and opened a law practice in Putnam County.