Debra Scudiere has just completed a term as president of the West Virginia State Bar, which is the mandatory, licensing body for every attorney in the state. At the same time, she also served as the president of the Southern Conference of Bar Presidents, an organization of bar presidents and other bar leaders from 18 southern states. She now moves into a slot as the second representative from West Virginia to the American Bar Association.

Still a member of the National Conference of Bar Presidents, Mrs. Scudiere was appointed to its Diversity Task Force, which works with national and specialty bars to bring more women and minorities into bar leadership positions.

She is an experienced trial attorney whose practice deals with all areas of civil defense litigation, including insurance, malpractice, contracts, and personal injury. She is a member of the firm's Alternative Dispute Resolution, Commercial, Nursing Home, and Employment Law Practice Groups.

Working out of the Morgantown office, Mrs. Scudiere is often called upon on a state-wide basis to act as a mediator and arbitrator; she was recently named one of The Best Lawyers in America as well as one of the Best Lawyers in Pittsburgh for the Morgantown area in alternative dispute resolution. She is Past Chairman of the State Bar's Alternative Dispute Resolution's Education Subcommittee, an Adjunct Lecturer in Trial Advocacy and Pre-Trial Discovery at the WVU College of Law, a member of the West Virginia State Bar's Board of Governors, and a member of the Board of Directors of West Virginia Senior Legal Aid, Inc. She has also sat on the West Virginia Law Institute and the Visiting Committee of the WVU College of Law.

Mrs. Scudiere attended West Virginia University, where she received her bachelor's degree magna cum laude in 1976. While attending the WVU College of Law, she was on the staff of the West Virginia Law Review and served as Research Editor of the Journal of College and University Law. She was President of the Marlyn Lugar Trial Association and a member of the Order of the Barrister and Phi Delta Phi. She received her J.D. degree in 1982.

Mrs. Scudiere is admitted to practice in the U. S. District Courts for both the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia, as well as the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court. She is a member of the West Virginia Bar Association, the Monongalia and Marion County Bar Associations, the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia, Inc., and the Defense Research Institute, Inc.