Member of the 1976 graduating class of Bridgeport High School and a local attorney with three decades of service, Pete Conley will be sworn in Thursday as Harrison County Family Court Judge.

 

“I’m excited, a little apprehensive and a little nostalgic about closing a 33-year practice,” said Conley, who will take his vows as one of the county’s newest elected officials at the Harrison County Courthouse in downtown Clarksburg.

 

Through the years, Conley’s work has included a diverse mix of law, including family law and related abuse and neglect work, as well as real estate, business, bankruptcy, civil suits and criminal law.

 

It’s unusual for a legal practice to encompass such a diverse mix, but having such an overall general knowledge of the law has equipped him well for the job at hand.

 

The reason he sought to serve as family court judge is pretty simple.

 

“I think it was an opportunity to help people in a different way and put all those years of experience to good use,” he said. “I sort of felt in a way that it was a calling. I started feeling it strongly when I was serving as mediator in family court cases.”

Serving as family court judge will place Conley in a unique position.

 

“I feel very strongly that you can resolve the issues that folks have while minimizing bitterness,” he said. “A lot of people still leave mediation angry to some degree, but that’s just the nature of the beast, because in a divorce there’s going to be hurt feelings. But I think if you do it with minimal damage to folks, you can at the same time be fair and accomplish something.”

 

Conley received his law degree from West Virginia University College of Law in 1984 and thereafter was hired by Siegrist & White PLLC in Clarksburg, but his pathway to the legal profession was not a straight path.

 

After graduating from BHS – where he was involved in a number of extracurricular pursuits, including the marching band – Conley entered Marshall University to study criminal justice and law enforcement. His intention at the time was to pursue a career in law enforcement. It was during freshman orientation that another criminal justice major first piqued Conley’s interest in a potential law career.

 

“He was talking about how you have to have good grades and how you have to take a test to get into law school,” Conley said. “I didn’t give it much thought until late in my sophomore year when I took a criminal justice class and the professor had a law degree. He taught our class the way a first-year law professor taught law school. I did really well in the class and enjoyed it. By then, I had kept a GPA that would qualify me for law school. It was really then that I thought, ‘I can do this.’ The professor was very encouraging to me.”

 

By the time his junior year rolled around, Conley had set his sights on becoming an attorney. Everything seemed to have fallen into place. Even his minors in history and sociology had helped prepare him. He graduated from Marshall in 1980 and was accepted into American University in Washington, DC.

 

“It’s a really good law school and i started off there; going there with the idea of staying in DC and trying to get a government job with a law degree – all these big ideas,” he said. “But I didn’t belong in Washington. I figured out I wasn’t a city boy.”

 

Conley withdrew from American University and worked for a year, sorting out his thoughts and plans.

 

“Then I started over at WVU School of Law, graduating in 1984,” Conley said.

 

That same year, he was hired by Siegrist & White.

 

“The firm had been in existence for decades when I joined and I was the youngest in the firm – probably by 18 years or so,” Conley said. “Ed Siegrist and Laban White were great teachers. They taught me all about the practice of law, but the type of work I wound up doing, I had to kind of make my own way.”

Conley said he couldn’t have asked for better mentors or nicer people to work with. He had only been with the firm for a year and a half when they named him partner.

 

“Being partner sounds nice, but one of the things that means is that you aren’t paid a salary. If you don’t bring in money, you don’t make money,” he said. “Becoming a partner in a small firm comes with its own set of pressures.”

 

His appointment to partner happened to be the same year he and wife Cindy, who had married in 1983, were expecting their first child, daughter Mimi. Daughter Sarah followed and in 1990 Siegrist & White merged with “Smiley” Martin and Dan Baker.

 

Siegrist, White, Dave Spelsberg all retired and thereafter passed away and in recent years, Martin also passed.

 

“So there was just the two of us,” said Conley about himself and Baker. “And now there will just be one.”

 

It’s been a good 33 years, time during which Conley has been involved in a number of other pursuits. He served eight years on the Harrison County Board of Education and two terms on the Bridgeport Fire Civil Service Commission. He is a member of Clarksburg Lions Club, for which he served as president and worked closely with the family of former Bridgeport Police Officer Jim Hotsinpiller and Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller to start the Hotsinpiller Memorial Scholarship Fund.

 

“I also worked closely in the Attorney for Court Improvement Program, a Supreme Court organization that works to improve the judicial process in child abuse and neglect cases,” Conley said. “I did that since the 1990s and that’s been a great experience, working with people on the state level and working with judges and prosecutors and doing training. I’ve been very involved with that professionally.”

 

Another activity – one which Conley has thoroughly enjoyed for 25 years – is reading “Jenny B. Jones” books to the students of Johnson Elementary School. He’s been a regular there since his daughters attended the elementary school. At the end of each year, he serves as host of the classroom’s “Jenny B. Jeopardy,” quizzing them on their knowledge of the book series.

 

“We see who can answer the most questions – the boys versus the girls,” he said.

Conley said his family has been very supportive of his race for family court judge; his daughters utilizing social media from their homes in Charleston, SC and wife Cindy totally vested in the day-to-day campaign. He said it was exciting – and a little nerve wracking – watching results roll in.

 

“It was close, but I had decided that if I lost, it wasn’t due to a lack of effort on my part,” said Conley, who in addition to campaigning through the media and signs, knocked on a lot of doors.

 

Cindy Conley is retired from teaching preschool at Bridgeport United Methodist Church. The couple attends Simpson Creek Baptist Church, where they are very active and have taught children's Sunday School for 25 years. They have two grandchildren, four-year-old Carlyn and two-year-old Colton Mahmey, both the children of daughter Mimi, who is a full-time mom and part-time employee for a Charleston, SC contractor. Sarah, who also lives in the Charleston, SC area, is a counselor at Hanahan High School. 

 

Conley will be sworn in at noon Thurs., Dec. 22 in Judge Bedell's courtroom, Division 2, fourth floor of the Harrison County Courthouse. The public is invited. 

 

Editor's Note: Conley is shown above with wife Cindy, daughters Mimi and Sara, grandchildren Carlyn and Colton, his Sheltie and while cooking at a fundraiser for a church youth mission trip at Simpson Creek Baptist Church.