Stephen G Skinner

Stephen Skinner was born and raised in Charles Town, West Virginia. He graduated from Jefferson High School in 1986, West Virginia Wesleyan College in 1990 (Honors Program) and the West Virginia University College of Law in 1994. In 2014, WVWC honored Stephen with its Alumni Achievement Award. During high school, he attended Mountaineer Boys State and the West Virginia Governor’s Honors Academy.

He began his legal career by working with his father in Charles Town from 1994 until 1999. He then moved to New York City where he represented aviation disaster and other catastrophically injured victims, including victims of the September 11th terrorist attacks. He traveled extensively with his New York firm before returning to West Virginia in 2004 to rejoin his father and his brother. 

Mr. Skinner has handled personal injury, wrongful death, consumer and products liability suits across the country. He is admitted to the bars of West Virginia, New York, the District of Columbia, the United States Supreme Court, the United States District Courts for the Southern District of New York, the Northern & Southern Districts of West Virginia, and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He is a member of the American Association for Justice, the Trial Lawyers Association of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., the West Virginia Association for Justice, Public Justice, the National Crime Victim Bar Association, and the Brain Injury Association of West Virginia. In 2014, the West Virginia Association for Justice honored Stephen with the “Stanley E. Preiser Member of the Year Award.”

He is a former President of the Board of Trustees of the Contemporary American Theater Festival at Shepherd University. He has served as an appointee to the West Virginia Commission on the Arts, and as a member of the Shepherd University Foundation Board of Directors. In 2014, Stephen received the Governor’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Skinner is active in human and civil rights advocacy on the local, state and national level. The West Virginia Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission honored him with its Living the Dream Award for Human and Civil Rights in 2011.

In 2014, Stephen was reelected to the West Virginia House of Delegates, 67th District and serves on the Judiciary Committee, Bank & Insurance Committee, and Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee.

Select Reported Appellate Cases:

Tennant v. Jefferson County Comm’n, 133 S.Ct. 3, 183 L.Ed.2d 660 (2012)

Jefferson County Comm’n v. Tennant, 876 F.Supp.2d 682 (2012)

State ex. rel. Piper v. Sanders, 724 S.E.2d 763, 2012 WL 987413 (2012)

Savard v. Cheat River Outfitters, 727 S.E.2d 836, 2012 WL 2076828 (2012)

State ex rel. Richmond American Homes of West Virginia, Inc. v. Sanders, 226 W.Va. 103, 697 S.E.2d 139 (2010)

Shepherdstown Observer v. Maghan, 226 W.Va. 353 (2010)

State ex rel. Kutil v. Blake, 223 W.Va. 711679 S.E.2d 310 (2009)

River Riders, Inc. v. Steptoe, 223 W.Va. 240, 672 S.E.2d 376 (2008)

Boyd v. Trent, 287 A.D.2d 475, 731 N.Y.S.2d 209 (2nd Dept.2002)

Chevy Chase Bank v. McCamant, 204 W.Va. 295, 512 S.E.2d 217 (1998)