Member, Shaffer & Shaffer, PLLC
Photo by Leah Vance Photography.
By Maggie Matsko. For Todd Mount, a member at Shaffer & Shaffer, PLLC, it is the state of West Virginia that has shaped him into the person he is today, but he didn’t always have a clear admiration for the Mountain State.
“As a young person, I don’t know that I had a real appreciation for West Virginia,” he says. “I hadn’t been away from home much and took everything for granted. In high school, though, I was fortunate to participate in the West Virginia Scholar Program, and that is where I met a lot of smart, fun people from around the state and really began to have a real appreciation for my home. Once I went to West Virginia University (WVU), that appreciation turned into undying love.”
When Mount made the decision to attend WVU, everything fell into place, and his journey toward a career in the field of law began. “My junior year, I became one of WVU’s nominees for a Harry S. Truman Foundation scholarship,” he says. “This led to some one-on-one mentoring with Professor Robert DiClerico, a nationally renowned political science teacher and historian, who introduced me to John Fisher, the dean of the law school at the time. Thanks to both of them, I went on to become a Truman Scholar finalist. That experience, more than anything, led me to look at law school as a real option for my future.”
In 1995, Mount graduated from the WVU College of Law and was admitted to practice in the Mountain State. He landed his first job as an associate for a firm in Charleston doing labor and employment law. In 1997, he left to be an assistant prosecutor in Boone County, a choice that paid less but was well worth the sacrifice.
“It was a different kind of experience entirely,” he says. “It gave me all the in-court, on-your-feet practical experience I could have hoped for, and I came to a much better understanding of people in general and the community in which I lived and worked. At the end of the day, there is simply no substitute for the confidence that comes from that amount of time in the courtroom.”
In 1998, Mount joined Shaffer & Shaffer, where he focuses on litigation, insurance defense, coverage disputes and small business consulting at the firm’s Madison and Charleston offices.
“It wasn’t until I came to Shaffer & Shaffer that I had career mentors who taught me how to be a true professional, look for creative settlement opportunities, be a gentleman and give back to the community that has given so much to me,” he says.
Mount was immediately included in a long-standing firm tradition: supporting the Boone County chapter of the WVU Alumni Association. He was invited to his first Boone County alumni pig roast on the day he was hired. A year later, he joined the chapter’s board, and he has served as board president for the last two years.
The alumni chapter’s mission is to raise money to use for scholarships for Boone County students who attend WVU. Since it was established in 1987, the chapter has awarded close to $700,000 in scholarships to more than 100 students. It also has the largest endowment of any chapter.
“The main reason for our success is that we have made our chapter an important part of our community and social lives since there are close bonds of friendship and family throughout the group,” says Mount. “We are now trying to grow our membership generationally, as a lot of the students who received scholarships or whose parents were active in the chapter are now successful adults. It’s up to them to keep this thing moving forward.”
Mount finds motivation not only in providing the best representation possible to his clients but also in his involvement in community and professional organizations. He is a former member of the West Virginia State Bar Board of Governors and currently serves on the board of the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia and as vice chair of the board of trustees of The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation, the largest community foundation in the state.
“I have picked the causes to which I give mainly by looking for opportunities to help people and improve the communities where I live and work,” he says. “I recently heard someone say, ‘The only people you should ever try to get even with are the ones that have helped you.’ I guess I’m just trying to get even.”
