Managing Member, Fitzsimmons Law Firm PLLC
Photo by Steve Payne
By Dawn Nolan
Since he was a boy, Clayton Fitzsimmons knew he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps.
“My dad is a trial lawyer, and growing up, I thought he was a modern-day David battling corporate Goliaths,” he says. “I was immediately drawn to this underdog role and challenge.”
Now, as managing member of Fitzsimmons Law Firm PLLC, Fitzsimmons gets to work alongside his father and older brother in his hometown of Wheeling. Fitzsimmons wears multiple hats in this role, running the business side of the practice while also working on the firm’s most complex cases which typically involve product liability, toxic torts, trucking litigation, catastrophic injuries, mass torts or class actions.
“I was drawn to these practice areas because they were the most intellectually engaging, and I liked the challenge of having to solve complex problems and issues that were involved in these types of cases,” he says.
Fitzsimmons graduated from Cornell University in 2005 where he also played tailback and wide receiver on the varsity football team before attending Notre Dame Law School. A lifelong athlete, he was drawn to the strategic and competitive nature of practicing law and quickly discovered that he also had a passion for it.
“I found the material fascinating and was always curious and eager to learn and understand the purpose, reasoning and logic behind it,” he says.
After graduating in 2008, Fitzsimmons joined his father’s firm.
“This was a unique and special opportunity for me,” he says. “One of the most memorable moments for me as an attorney was trying my first trial with my dad and combining that experience, which was filled with intensity and drama, with our father-son relationship.”
Professionally, Fitzsimmons maintains membership in the American Association for Justice and National Trial Lawyers and he holds board and committee positions within the West Virginia Association of Justice. He is also a current member and former trustee of the Ohio Association for Justice. He has regularly been recognized by his peers for his work by being selected for inclusion in Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers and the National Trial Lawyers’ top lawyers.
Fitzsimmons was appointed to the West Virginia Office of Disciplinary Council’s Lawyer Disciplinary Board, where he previously was a member of the Hearing Committee and currently serves on the Investigative Panel. He was also appointed by the West Virginia Supreme Court to the District 1 Character and Fitness Committee in 2014. In this role, Fitzsimmons has the responsibility of interviewing and assessing new bar applicants.
“Many of these applicants are young, brand new attorneys, and I always try to talk to them about practicing law and balancing life as a lawyer,” he says. “Our doors are always open, and we regularly meet with attorneys who are looking for help or guidance on a variety of issues, whether it be legal or personal. We’ve always done this because it’s important that lawyers look out for lawyers, especially younger ones who are still trying to navigate this difficult profession.”
Fitzsimmons also feels that lawyers have a unique responsibility to promote diversity and inclusion.
“These are important traits needed in all professions but especially the legal profession,” he says. “Lawyers handle and represent a wide variety of issues and people, and promoting diversity and inclusion within the profession will help ensure that our bar is best equipped to represent and understand the needs of all people and clients.”
Despite the ongoing challenge of ensuring that the firm stays ahead of the changes in the practice of law and technology, Fitzsimmons continues to find his work to be intellectually stimulating.
“I look at cases like complex puzzles where we are challenged to figure out what happened and why,” he says. “Also, because each case is different, I get the opportunity to learn about many different things outside the law such as medicine, engineering or physics. These challenges and the variety of my practice, along with the desire to help my clients, is what motivates me to show up every day.”
Clayton is highly driven by both the impact that he makes on his clients’ lives and the overarching goal for Fitzsimmons Law to be the best plaintiff’s firm in the state.
“I get to help people in their most desperate times, usually after they have suffered a catastrophic injury or the loss of a family member,” he says. “Their case is probably the only shot to get the help or relief they need, which is added motivation. With every successful case that I’ve handled, I have positively changed my client’s life going forward and provided them with security, answers and help at a time when they most desperately needed it. I still get Christmas cards and notes from clients I represented years ago thanking me.”
While Fitzsimmons credits both of his parents for instilling the essential principles of hard work, sacrifice, grittiness and what it means to be a good person, his father has played the biggest role in making him the lawyer he is today.
“My dad taught me so much more than just how to practice law,” he says. “He taught me the importance and responsibility of what it means to be a lawyer; the work, sacrifice and preparation needed to succeed; how to always stay grounded, humble and hungry; how to treat and respect people; and how to always make sure my moral compass was pointed in the right direction.”
A family man himself, Fitzsimmons and his wife, Amy, have four children: Bella, Farrah, Poppy and Forrest, who are his greatest success and inspiration.
“I am so proud of the family we have built,” he says. “My ultimate success in life will be judged by their contributions to our community and what type of spouses and parents they become.”
As for his own community contributions, Fitzsimmons is committed to helping improve the place he calls home and does so largely through his family’s foundation.
“Our causes have varied from helping the less fortunate or those battling substance use addiction and founding the Fitzsimmons Litigation and Advocacy Center at WVU Law School to funding the three Fitzsimmons Family dog parks in Wheeling,” he says. “We try to find causes where our time and donations will have a lasting and measurable impact.”
Family and community are why Fitzsimmons continues to practice in West Virginia.
“I choose to live and work in West Virginia because of family,” he says. “I have the unique opportunity to work at the law firm started by my dad and practice with my dad, brother and some of my best friends. Our kids also get the rare opportunity to grow up with both sets of grandparents and their aunts, uncles and cousins. The people in Wheeling and West Virginia are some of the most good-hearted people in the country and practicing here allows me to give back to the community where I grew up.”
Fitzsimmons has practiced law how he has approached everything else in his life—by pushing himself to be the best through hard work and perseverance.
“There may be lawyers who are more talented or smarter, but I am not going to lose a case because someone outworked me,” he says.
