Robinson & McElwee is pleased to announce that firm Member Mark H. Hayes was elected President of the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia (DTCWV) earlier this summer.  Mr. Hayes was officially installed at the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia annual meeting at Glade Springs Resort in June when he began his one-year term.

Mr. Hayes’s plans for his year as the organization’s president include enhancing its role as the voice of the defense bar, and expanding the services it provides to its members and the community at large.  DTCWV is the only state-wide representative of corporate and business litigators, and works with Chambers of Commerce, the legislature, judicial officers and state administration to enhance West Virginia’s court system and that laws that govern it.  Mr. Hayes and the DTCWV Board of Governors also support a diverse community of West Virginia lawyers, and the organization is committed to promoting a legal community of inclusion and equality. 

Mr. Hayes has been involved with the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia since 1991, a member of the organization’s Board of Governors for ten years, and in the officers’ rotation since 2016.  He is a resident of Huntington and has over thirty years of experience representing businesses in West Virginia, specifically in litigation.  Outside of the office, Mr. Hayes serves his alma mater Marshall University as a member of the Board of the Directors for the Marshall University Alumni Association and by mentoring undergraduate students on the law and its effect on their future profession as a part of the University’s John Marshall Legal Society.  He also serves his other alma mater, the West Virginia University College of Law, as a member of its “Visiting Committee”, providing insight, advice and support to its administration and students.