Tinder Box

YLS

YLS stands for the Young Lawyers Section. Within the West Virginia State Bar, the Young Lawyers Section stands for participation and involvement in numerous projects for the betterment of the legal profession and the members of the general public in West Virginia.

On May 1, 1947, the West Virginia State Bar came into existence. Three years later, the leaders of the State Bar initiated the Junior Bar, which was the predecessor to the Young Lawyers Section. In the beginning, a new lawyer was a member of the Young Lawyers Section until they reached the age of 36 years. This took into consideration the normal person graduating from high school, going immediately to college and getting their degree and then immediately beginning the three years of law school. Consequently, the person was about 25 or 26 years of age when they received their law degree and began their legal practice.

Sometime in the past 10 years or so, a change was made so that a person remained a member of the Young Lawyers Section until they had been admitted to practice law for 10 years - no matter what age they were. This modification took into consideration the larger number of persons who were getting their law degrees at an older age.

It was sometime in the 1960's when the name of the Junior Bar was changed to the Young Lawyers Section. It happened here in West Virginia after it occurred at the American Bar Association which has its own Young Lawyers Division.

For almost forty years now the Junior Bar/Young Lawyers Section has been the bread and butter for the State Bar. It has been involved in a wide variety of programs, projects and events to help our citizens learn about the law and to assist lawyers in their practice. It was in the 1970's when the Young Lawyers Section set up its own Executive Committee which is similar in nature to the State Bar=s Board of Governors. The Executive Committee members, who are a diverse group of lawyers from all parts of the state, make the policy decisions for the Section. It has its own budget and the Young Lawyers Section Chairperson serves as a voting member of the Board of Governors.

Each month, the YLS Chairperson writes a column which appears in this West Virginia Lawyer magazine. This year=s Chairperson Todd Twyman is providing his leadership abilities towards numerous YLS projects including the newly approved Bridge the Gap Program.

In May, 1997, the West Virginia Lawyer had a commemorative issue that depicted the fifty year history of the West Virginia State Bar. In that issue, we listed the Chairpersons of the Junior Bar/Young Lawyers Section from 1960 to 1997. We were unaware at that time that the Junior Bar had actually begun in 1950.

With the help of the first Junior Bar Chairperson, James Ballengee and another Junior Bar Chairperson, Mote Thompson, who is also a member of the West Virginia Bar Foundation=s Board of Directors, we have been able to put together the complete listing of lawyers who served as the Chairpersons of the Junior Bar/Young Lawyers Section since its inception in 1950. We greatly appreciate the assistance that we received from Jim and Mote.

So here is the complete listing of the Junior Bar/Young Lawyers Section Chairpersons from 1950 to the present. They are an impressive group of lawyers and leaders (present company excluded):

1950-51 - James M. Ballengee
1951-52 - Bert H. Early
1952-53 - F. Witcher McCullough
1953-54 - James E. Watson, III
1954-55 - Benjamin H. Webb, III
1955-56 - Thomas S. Smith, Jr.
1956-57 - Harry G. Shaffer, Jr.
1957-58 - W. Mote Thompson, Jr.
1958-59 - William C. Jacobs
1959-60 - Winfield T. Shaffer
1960-61 - Gary Joe Triplett                 
1961-62 - Philip B. Hill                       
1962-63 - Herbert G. Underwood         
1963-64 - James K. Brown                   
1964-65 - H. Raymond Andrews, Jr.      
1965-66 - Fred L. Davis, Jr.                
1966-67 - A. Michael Perry                 
1967-68 - Thomas E. Potter                 
1969-70 - Charles A. Sinsel, III              
1970-71 - Dan O. Callaghan                  
1972-73 - Charles Dusic                     
1973-74 - Ward D. Stone, Jr.                 
1974-75 - Ralph J. Bean, Jr.                 
1975-76 - John Lobert                         
1976-77 - Sue Seibert Farnsworth
1977-78 - Thomas R. Tinder
1978-79 - John V. Esposito
1979-80 - John Cooper
1980-81 - Delby Stobbs
1981-82 - Michael J. Farrell
1982-83 - Pamela D. Tarr
1983-84 - Norman T. Farley
1984-85 - James M. Casey
1985-86 - Paul T. Farrell
1986-87 - Charles "Dusty" Phalen
1987-88 - William Richardson, Jr.
1988-89 - Joseph M. Farrell
1989-90 - Charles B. Howard
1990-91 - Richard E. Ford, Jr.
1991-92 - David M. Goldenberg
1992-93 - Barbara L. Baxter
1993-94 - W. Michael Frazier
1994-95 - E. Scott Stanton
1995-96 - Carl J. Dascoli, Jr.
1996-97 - William F. Rohrbaugh
1997-98 - Jodie M. Boylen
1998-99 - O. Reginald Osenton
1999-00 - Todd A. Twyman