WVU College of Law Class of 2024
Photo by WVU Law Marketing & Communications.
By Maggie Hatfield
Originally from Bridgeport, Emily Ogden always knew she would attend West Virginia University (WVU) since her roots run deep in the Mountain State.
“My mom’s side of the family has lived in West Virginia for several generations, and I have lived here my entire life,” she says. “It wasn’t even a question of where I would go for my undergraduate degree, and I consider myself even luckier to be a double Mountaineer now that I have graduated from WVU Law.”
Ogden made the decision to apply to law school after her participation in an Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program class in fall 2019. Inside-Out allows students enrolled in universities to participate in classes with incarcerated students.
She took a class taught by Dr. Katy Ryan at Pennsylvania’s State Correctional Institute (SCI) at Fayette.
“The students at SCI Fayette taught me about issues that are prevalent in the criminal justice and prison system, which motivated me to pursue a legal career to help people who do not have the power to help themselves,” Ogden says.
After receiving a Bachelor of Arts in English in 2021, Ogden went on to WVU Law with a concentration in public interest law, graduating in the top 25% of her class.
While attending WVU Law, Ogden held two jobs in the legal field: employeeat Legal Aid of West Virginia and summer law clerk at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia for the Honorable Judge Michael Aloi.
“Working at Legal Aid taught me to be compassionate and patient and to expect the unexpected,” she says. “While working with Judge Aloi, I also learned about the inner workings of the federal judicial system, particularly about the responsibilities of magistrate and district court judges.”
On top of handling a full course load, Ogden upheld a few leadership positions throughout her time in law school.
While at WVU Law, she was the president of the Public Interest Advocates and served as a board member of the West Virginia Fund for Law in the Public Interest before taking on the role of secretary. She was also one of two executive article selection and symposium editors for Volume 126 of the West Virginia Law Review and named Executive Editor of the Year.
Ogden earned two CALI awards at WVU Law for Evidence and Professional Responsibility. She also earned awards for pro bono and community service for dedicating more than 25 hours of time to both community service projects and pro bono projects at the law school.
Ogden is dedicated to helping others outside of WVU Law, as well. Since 2019, she has volunteered with the Appalachian Prison Book Project (APBP), a nonprofit that sends free books to incarcerated people across six Appalachian states including West Virginia.
“For a few years, I was a general volunteer and assisted with sorting letters, matching books and wrapping books,” she says.
In 2022, Ogden joined the Community Outreach Committee and assisted with book wrapping events on WVU’s campus and in the community.
“During these events, community volunteers are given an opportunity to learn about APBP’s mission and to help wrap books for community service hours,” she says.
Ogden was elected to APBP’s Board as co-treasurer in 2023. She also served on a scholarship committee for Your Community Foundation (YCF) of North Central West Virginia.
“Over the years, I have been awarded scholarships by YCF, so it has been incredibly rewarding to review scholarship applications and help YCF provide the same opportunities to other students as they enter college,” she says.
Ogden is looking forward to the future and hopes to pass the bar and be sworn in as an attorney in October.
“I’m looking forward to getting started in my legal career,” she says. “Public interest has always been a passion for me, so I will also be looking for opportunities to serve others in my community.”
Ogden will be working for the Honorable Judge Irene Berger at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia starting in September 2024.
“After my term ends in September 2025, I hope to continue clerking in the federal judicial system,” she says.
