john hackney:  

During my tenure as a law student at Tulane, I worked at Pellerin Milnor in Kenner LA and the US Attorney's Office in New Orleans respectively. I met my wife, Martha, in New Orleans on a river boat during Mardi Gras. She is a Colombian National - who worked as a P.T. at Charity Hospital. We were married in 1982. We have 2 adult children - and are still happily married - living in Charleston, WV - where I was born and raised. After graduation I returned to W.Va. to attend to my mother who was gravely ill and who soon succumbed to the illness. I got a job as an assistant prosecutor in Kanawha County WVa. - which I held for 5 years, until I resigned. In 1988 I left the Prosecutor's Office to go into private practice, primarily in criminal defense - state and federal. During this time, I also worked as a hearing examiner for the WV Workers' Compensation Division - in addition to a legislative draftsman for the WV Legislature - advising members thereof and drafting legislation. In 1991 I became a WV Assistant Attorney General in the Division of Higher Education. In 1994 I reentered private practice. In 2007 I was appointed to a six year term to the West Virginia Court of Claims as a Judge - and, later, Presiding Judge. The WV Court of Claims hears claims brought against the State that would, otherwise, be immune from judgment under the concept of sovereign immunity. The Court also hears claims made by crime victims under the WV State Crime Victims' Act. I resigned in January 2011, before my term expired, to accept an appointment from the Governor of WV to act as the Director of a newly created State governmental agency, i.e., the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) under the authority of the WV Department of Transportation. . In 2011, I was appointed as the first "Chief H...Expand for more