Career Opportunities
The Tinney Law Firm is a litigation-only law firm located in Charleston, West Virginia. We are accepting applications for summer clerkships from interested law students. Applications from both first-year and second-year students will be considered. Please send all applications and resumes to:
John H. Tinney, Jr.
The Tinney Law Firm
Chase Tower, 14th Floor
707 Virginia Street, East
Charleston, WV 25301
PO Box 3752
Charleston, WV 25337-3752
The Vanishing Trial
The Litigation Section of the American Bar Association has recently undertaken an enormous project - to document and study the "vanishing trial," a trend that indicates that trials are becoming "an increasingly rare beast." Click here to view the article.
The declining number of trials in federal and state courts raises many concerns. With more cases being settled, mediated or arbitrated without a public resolution, trials are becoming perceived as a "failure of the system." More alarming is that this "privatization of dispute resolution" contributes nothing toward the legal system. No laws are being made, and no precedents set.
Simply put, fewer lawyers are trying cases. Instead, they are relegated to pushing paper and appearing in court for motion calls. In a law firm where few cases go to trial each year, it is nearly impossible for a young attorney to get his or her foot in the door. As a result, the pool of qualified trial lawyers in our community and nationwide is shrinking.
No Trial Avoidance Here
The Tinney Law Firm is an aggressive litigation boutique, and we aim to be the premiere trial lawyers in the region. As a smaller firm with very few client conflicts, we are able to represent a wide variety of clients, from sophisticated corporate defendants to criminal defendants or individual plaintiffs.
With seven lawyers in our firm and a rapidly-increasing case load, young attorneys have the opportunity to work on large, complex cases and take leading roles in smaller matters. For example, as a panel attorney for the CJA (Criminal Justice Act), Jack Tinney represents a number of defendants in federal court in matters such as drugs, arson, and gun-related offenses. Second-chairing these trials is an excellent way for a young lawyer to gain immediate and valuable courtroom experience.
