This is a virtual event. Please contact Richie Heath at rheath@bowlesrice.com for Zoom information.
Featuring:
Elbert Lin – Partner, Hunton Andrews Kurth
Danielle Waltz – Member, Jackson Kelly PLLC
Jason Huffman – West Virginia State Director, Americans for Prosperity
Moderated by Richie Heath – Special Counsel, Bowles Rice LLP
Special Counsel, Bowles Rice LLP
Richard "Richie" Heath, Jr. concentrates his practice in the area of government relations at Bowles Rice LLP. Prior to joining the firm, he was Chief Legal Counsel and Chief of Staff for West Virginia Senate Presidents Mitch B. Carmichael and William P. Cole. He also served as a Deputy Attorney General to West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
Richie's experience in public policy, government relations and executive management is extensive. From legislative drafting and in-depth legal analysis to research and communications, his background in the public, private and non-profit sectors provides the ability to offer clients measured, insightful results. In addition, Richie has significant practice in the areas of economic development, constitutional law and civil justice reform, and he regularly assists on campaign finance and election law matters.
Richie's practice also includes work in the hospitality, gaming and tourism industry as well as the state's burgeoning industrial hemp and medical cannabis field. He is the primary author of State of Affairs, the official blog of the Bowles Rice Government Relations team.
A 2002 graduate of the Wake Forest University School of Law, Richie was selected a National Member of the Order of the Barristers, an honorary organization limited to graduating law students and practicing lawyers who demonstrate exceptional skill in trial advocacy, oral advocacy and brief writing. He earned his bachelor’s degree, magna cum laude, in political science from Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.
West Virginia State Director, Americans for Prosperity
Jason was born and raised in Buckhannon, WV. He began his career as a policy analyst for the West Virginia State Senate. He then worked with the West Virginia Republican Party where he eventually served as their Operations Director, playing an integral role in helping Republicans capture a majority in the State House and Senate for the first time in nearly a century. He now serves as the Americans for Prosperity West Virginia State Director, a chapter that recently helped secured passage of Right to Work legislation making a majority of the United States Right to Work status for the first time in history. Jason comes from several proud generations of West Virginia coal miners including Jason’s father who has worked underground for more than 40 years. Jason went to public school and was the first of his immediate family to graduate from college, which he did with honors. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from West Virginia Wesleyan College and a Master’s in Public Administration from West Virginia State University.
Chair, Issues & Appeals, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP
The former Solicitor General of West Virginia, Mr. Lin has been on the front lines of many precedent-setting cases in appellate courts across the country, including in a US Supreme Court victory that George Will called “the court’s most severe rebuke of a president” since the Truman administration. Having argued more than 60 appeals, he brings to clients a well-honed ability to identify the most persuasive issues for appeal and a practiced understanding of how best to frame complex legal questions in appellate courts.
With experience in the private sector and multiple branches of government, Mr. Lin’s practice has spanned a wide range of issues, including major questions of constitutional and administrative law at the federal and state levels. On behalf of more than two dozen states, he won a stay from the US Supreme Court of the EPA’s Clean Power Plan. Described by the New York Times as an “unprecedented” order, the stay was the first time the Supreme Court had ever put a regulation on hold before review by a federal appeals court. In that same case, Elbert argued before the en banc DC Circuit in an historic proceeding that one commenter quoted in E&E News compared to “the NBA All-Star Game.” At the state level, Elbert led the effort that persuaded the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals to overturn an injunction of the state’s right-to-work law.
In 2013, Mr. Lin was appointed the Solicitor General of West Virginia. During his four-and-a-half year tenure, he served as a member of the Attorney General’s senior management team, oversaw all civil and criminal appeals, and argued nearly two dozen cases in federal and state appellate courts. He authored more than twenty-five briefs in the US Supreme Court and more than forty-five formal Opinions of the Attorney General.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Lin served as a trial attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the US Department of Justice’s Civil Division, where he received a Special Service Award. He has also been a law clerk at all three levels of the federal judiciary: for Justice Clarence Thomas on the US Supreme Court; for Judge William H. Pryor Jr. on the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit; and for Senior Judge Robert E. Keeton on the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Mr. Lin speaks regularly on a wide variety of topics, including constitutional law, administrative law, environmental law, state and federal relations, the US Supreme Court, and appellate practice. He has testified before Congress, and has spoken at the national conventions of the American Bar Association, the Association of Corporate Counsel, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Federalist Society, Americans for Prosperity, and the American Legislative Exchange Council. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute, a public member of the Administrative Conference of the United States, and a fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers.
Mr. Lin is admitted to practice in the following federal courts: the Supreme Court of the United States; the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, Eleventh, D.C., and Federal Circuits; the District of Massachusetts; the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia; and the Eastern and Western Districts of Virginia.
Member, Jackson Kelly PLLC
Danielle M. Waltz is a Member in the Banking, Construction, and Government industry groups at Jackson Kelly PLLC, focusing primarily on litigation and government relations. She practices out of the Firm’s office in Charleston, West Virginia.
Danielle has a wide range of legal experience, including handling complex multi-party construction matters and litigating commercial banking cases. With many of her clients in the construction industry, she knows the business side of construction as well as the law. Danielle is a natural problem solver who enjoys helping her clients find solutions to their issues, which oftentimes requires tenacity and out-of-the-box thinking.
Danielle has published and lectured on construction matters, including authoring the West Virginia portion of the 2009 Defense Research Institute Desk Reference. She is extensively involved in the Defense Research Institute Construction Law Group, holding several leadership positions through the years, including National Seminar Chair.
She also has a great deal of experience in government relations – providing services for local, state, and national business clients. Her government relations clients count on her to help them navigate the passage or defeat of legislation and to develop rapport with elected officials and government agencies. Danielle is the perfect person for this, as she’s a people-person who likes connecting with others. She has a definite knack for bringing people together for mutually beneficial partnerships.
Danielle is a proud native of West Virginia’s Northern Panhandle. She holds her undergraduate degree in mathematics from West Virginia University and likes solving math problems for fun. She also holds a law degree from WVU, so it’s no surprise she’s a big fan of WVU sports. On weekends, if she's not cheering on the Mountaineers, you're likely to find her playing squash or exercising. With her quick smile and genuine warmth, Danielle is always the most winning person in the room – despite the fact that she exercises and does math for fun.
