Law Firm

West Virginia University Hospitals-East officials recently accepted a $12,500 donation from the law firm of Jackson Kelly PLLC in support of the $3 million Time Saves Lives capital campaign. In mid-November, WVUH-East launched the public phase of the major gifts fundraising campaign to assist in underwriting facility and service enhancements at City Hospital in Martinsburg and Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Ranson, W.Va.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - The Jefferson County Board of Education voted 3-0 Wednesday night to hire a law firm to conduct an investigation for the school board, schools spokeswoman Liz Thompson said Thursday. The law firm of Kay, Casto, Chaney, Love and Wise is to report the findings of its investigation to the school board, Thompson said. Thompson referred questions about the investigation to schools Superintendent David Markoe. Markoe said he could not commment because it involved a personnel matter.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com WAYNESBORO, Pa. - A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday for a former employee of a Waynesboro law firm charged with writing a check for nearly $23,000 on the firm's bank account and depositing it in her personal bank account, according to court records. Waynesboro police in November charged Teri L. Yoder-Rihel, 47, of 433 Hamilton Ave., Waynesboro, with one count each of theft by unlawful taking, forgery and identity theft for an incident court records alleged occurred in January 2004.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - A fire discovered in the Martinsburg offices of a regional law firm Thursday morning is under investigation by the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department and the West Virginia State Fire Marshal's office. The fire, reported to emergency dispatchers at 5:45 a.m., was contained to one room in the law offices of McNeer, Highland, McMunn and Varner L.C. at 275 Aikens Center, according to a news release from the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department. "We got the fire out pretty quickly," Bedington Volunteer Fire Department deputy chief Tom Newcomb said.

A woman accused of attempting to defraud the law firm where she worked was arraigned Wednesday on 56 felony counts of credit card fraud by Berkeley County Magistrate Sandra L. Miller. Lacy Godby, 35, of 23 East Calabash Court in Martinsburg, is accused of making $7,881 in purchases with a credit card that belonged to the Burke, Schultz, Harman & Jenkinson law firm, according to court records. The purchases between January 2009 and September 2010 included two laptop computers from Walmart, which Godby told police she then sold and/or traded for drugs, according to a complaint by West Virginia State Police Cpl. J.M. Walker.

John P. Corderman, a former Washington County Circuit judge and Maryland state senator, died Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. He was 70. “Our family is truly grateful for the time God gave us with Jack,” a statement from Corderman's family read. “He was a loving person who dedicated much of his time to helping others and we are proud of all that he accomplished. We will miss him dearly and know that his spirit lives on in the lives of all those he touched.” Corderman's survivors include his wife, Ann; daughter, Elizabeth; sons, Paul and Robert; and his mother, Gertrude Carder, according to his obituary.

University of Maryland Medical System BALTIMORE - Hagerstown attorney D. Bruce Poole is among three new members of the University of Maryland Medical System's board of directors. Poole, an attorney and partner in the Hagerstown law firm Poole & Kane, is a member of the board of visitors for the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. He is chairman of the Washington County Board of Education Ethics Committee; a member of the Maryland Video Lottery Facility Location Commission and the Maryland State Bar Association Emergency Response Committee.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Three Martinsburg residents filed separate class-action lawsuits last week against a national commercial cleaning firm, alleging it violated federal overtime laws, according to their attorney. The three former employees filed the suits against Kellermeyer Building Services of Maumee, Ohio, last Thursday in U.S. District Court in Wheeling, W.Va., said the plaintiffs' attorney, Robert Schiavoni of the Martinsburg law firm of Hammer, Ferretti & Schiavoni. All three were treated as salaried employees and given supervisory titles, but their primary duties were cleaning, Schiavoni said.

NEW YORK (AP) - Candice Bergen is joining her first prime-time TV series since "Murphy Brown," this time as a cast member of ABC's "Boston Legal. " Bergen will join "Boston Legal" stars James Spader and William Shatner. She'll play Shirley Schmidt, a founding partner of the show's law firm. In the early '90s, the actress won five Emmys and two Golden Globes for her performance on "Murphy Brown," a sitcom about a single mom in the television news business. "Boston Legal," a David E. Kelley-created spin-off of "The Practice," focuses on the lives of high-priced civil lawyers at an upscale Boston law firm.

waynesboro@herald-mail.com WAYNESBORO, Pa. - The entrance to the Waynesboro Borough Council's meeting room is becoming a revolving door. Since August, two councilmen resigned, two were made lame ducks in Tuesday's Pennsylvania primary and one more resigned Wednesday night. Councilman Andrew J. Benchoff, elected to represent Ward 3 in November 2003, sent a letter to the council announcing his immediate resignation. He was not at the meeting Wednesday. His letter was read by Borough Manager Lloyd Hamberger.

West Virginia University Hospitals-East officials recently accepted a $12,500 donation from the law firm of Jackson Kelly PLLC in support of the $3 million Time Saves Lives capital campaign. In mid-November, WVUH-East launched the public phase of the major gifts fundraising campaign to assist in underwriting facility and service enhancements at City Hospital in Martinsburg and Jefferson Memorial Hospital in Ranson, W.Va.

University of Maryland Medical System BALTIMORE - Hagerstown attorney D. Bruce Poole is among three new members of the University of Maryland Medical System's board of directors. Poole, an attorney and partner in the Hagerstown law firm Poole & Kane, is a member of the board of visitors for the University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center. He is chairman of the Washington County Board of Education Ethics Committee; a member of the Maryland Video Lottery Facility Location Commission and the Maryland State Bar Association Emergency Response Committee.

Three fire code violations involving fire-rated doors were found this week in Washington County government's largely empty office building in downtown Hagerstown. In a written notice of inspection Wednesday to the county's Division of Public Works, city Fire Marshal Douglas DeHaven said the inspection was limited to areas used by tenants on the first and third floors of the 128 W. Washington St. building. The address for the entire structure is 120-128 W. Washington St. Joe Kroboth, director of public works, said Friday that all of the violations either have been corrected or action has been taken that should correct the situation soon.

Democrat Stephen Skinner and Republican Elliot Simon are seeking the newly created 67th district seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates. Skinner is new to politics and Simon is making his second run for the House. Longtime Democratic Del. John Doyle of Shepherdstown, W.Va., is ending a two-year term in the soon-to-be-history 57th District, when it is replaced in January by the newly redistricted 67th. Doyle is leaving politics after 20 years. The 67th, Jefferson County's second-largest district, runs from the Blue Ridge Mountain area through Harpers Ferry and Bolivar, follows the Potomac River to Shepherdstown north to the Washington County line and west to the Berkeley County line.

Democrat Frances Morgan, a Jefferson County Commissioner, wants to stay on the job for six more years. “It's a great job if you can get it,” said Morgan, 49, an organic farmer on her Aylmere Farm in Summit Point, W.Va. Jefferson County commissioners, according to state code, earn $36,960 a year. Early voting runs from Oct. 24 to Nov. 3 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., including Saturday, Oct. 27, at the Jefferson County Courthouse. Morgan's is the only commission seat on the Nov. 6 ballot.

John P. Corderman, a former Washington County Circuit judge and Maryland state senator, died Tuesday at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore. He was 70. “Our family is truly grateful for the time God gave us with Jack,” a statement from Corderman's family read. “He was a loving person who dedicated much of his time to helping others and we are proud of all that he accomplished. We will miss him dearly and know that his spirit lives on in the lives of all those he touched.” Corderman's survivors include his wife, Ann; daughter, Elizabeth; sons, Paul and Robert; and his mother, Gertrude Carder, according to his obituary.

The promotion of three Berkeley County sheriff's deputies will cost $11,390 in back pay, excluding benefit-related costs, according to the finance division of Berkeley County Clerk John W. Small's office. The Berkeley County Council was notified this month of the promotion of Thomas Young to the rank of sergeant, Daniel Steerman to the rank of lieutenant and Scott Myers to rank of corporal, according to memos sent to Small's office from Sheriff Kenneth Lemaster Jr. The promotions of Young and Myers were made effective Jan. 21, 2009, and Jan. 6, 2009, respectively.

A legislative ethics committee has reprimanded state Sen.Robert J. Garagiolafor violating a financial disclosure statute by not declaring outside income for six years. However, the Maryland General Assembly's Joint Committee on Legislative Ethics noted that Garagiola, D-Montgomery, previously filed a conflict-of-interest form - calling that a “partially-mitigating element” - and decided a reprimand was enough. A letter from the committee's co-chairmen to Randa Fahmy Hudome of Potomac, Md., whose complaint triggered the review, said “further proceedings are not justified at this time because the violations have been cured, and, after consideration of all the circumstances, further proceedings would not serve the purposes of this subtitle.” Garagiola, the Senate majority leader, ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination for Maryland's 6th Congressional District seat, losing to John Delaney in an April 3 primary.

An attorney accused of setting a fire at the law firm where she once worked and threatening to bomb a nearby insurance business was placed on probation for five years after she pleaded no contest Monday to two felony charges in Berkeley County Circuit Court. Ashley R. Shreve, 30, of Oakland, Md., pleaded no contest to second-degree arson and conveying a false bomb threat. She was ordered by Judge Christopher C. Wilkes to pay $500 in restitution to McNeer, Highland, McMunn & Varner LC and $2,548 to Westfield Insurance.

Judge John W. Keller, of Waynesboro, Pa., died peacefully on April 19, 2012. He had been residing at Penn Hall in Chambersburg, Pa., and was critically ill for several weeks. Judge Keller, known as "Jack" or "Kelly" by his close friends, was born in Waynesboro, March 15, 1927, to Eva (Nicodemus) Keller and Niemond F. Keller, a Waynesboro attorney. His grandfather was Jeremiah Keller, a judge in Juniata County, Pa. Judge Keller was a graduate of Waynesboro High School in 1944, where he was co-captain of the football team.