WVU College of Law Class of 2023
By Kristen Uppercue
Nakia Ridgeway, term law clerk at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia and 2023 West Virginia University (WVU) College of Law graduate, was born and raised in a large family in Lexington, KY. She decided to make Northern Virginia her second home, attending George Mason University to receive a bachelor’s degree in conflict analysis and resolution with a minor in African and African American studies and a concentration in justice and reconciliation.
After graduating, Ridgeway worked in the Washington, D.C., metro area, where she served in a few different roles, including at the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, an international law firm and on Capitol Hill as a congressional staffer, before attending law school.
Ridgeway received many honors upon graduating, including the Order of the Barristers; CALI Excellence for the Future Awards in Race, Racism and the Law, Artificial Intelligence and the Law and Pretrial Litigation; the 2023 National Women Lawyer’s Award for WVU College of Law; and the Faith and Politics Institute John Robert Lewis Fellow.
“One of the best parts of being a student at WVU was the comradery that our class had,” Ridgeway says. “We started law school at the height of the pandemic, so we were not afforded the normal law school experience at first, but we persevered and made the most of our time together as classmates.”
While at WVU, Ridgeway served as a research assistant and teaching assistant for professor Charles DiSalvo. She also served as summer associate at a national law firm working in the litigation group and participated in the Google Legal Summer Institute Program, working as a summer associate at one of Google’s partner law firms in Louisville, KY.
Ridgeway served as president of the Black Law Student Association and director of programming for the Mid-Atlantic Region of Black Law Students Association (BSLA), where she developed programming for the BLSA chapters in Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
As for volunteer work, Ridgeway worked with the Appalachian Prison Book Project, an organization that provides books to individuals who are incarcerated in Appalachian states. She also participated in a name change clinic with Legal Aid of West Virginia and participated in many smaller community service projects.
She served on the Moot Court Board as a competition member and the tryout chair. As part of the Student Bar Association, she served as the law student liaison on the West Virginia State Bar Young Lawyers Committee and as the American Bar Association Liaison for WVU College of Law. Outside of law school, Ridgeway served as a law student member on the WVU Public Safety Advisory Committee and the West Virginia Supreme Court Taskforce for Lawyer Well-Being.
“I found that being involved with organizations outside of class made for a more balanced law school experience,” Ridgeway says. “My involvement in these activities allowed me to further develop my advocacy and writing skills and also engage with attorneys and non-attorneys in West Virginia on issues that matter to me.”
Ridgeway previously interned for the Honorable Bibi Berry in the Montgomery County Circuit Court in Rockville, MD, and externed for the Honorable Michael Aloi in the Northern District of West Virginia.
“I was fortunate to have been exposed to both state and federal courts,” Ridgeway says.
In her last year at WVU, Ridgeway participated in the Clinical Law Program as a student attorney for the West Virginia Innocence Project, which was one of the most fulfilling experiences she has had to date, she says.
While her experience with the Mountain State didn’t start until she came to law school, Ridgeway has enjoyed every moment.
“For the past three years, I have enjoyed the beautiful fall foliage, energy-filled football games and pepperoni rolls. But most of all, I have benefitted from the many friends and mentors I have gained through WVU College of Law and beyond,” she says. “No matter where I go, if I come across another West Virginian or Mountaineer, I automatically feel the love.”
