David E. Gilbert

Education

• B.A. (pre-law), Bob Jones University – summa cum laude
• J.D., Columbia University School of Law – Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar

Experience

• West Virginia Attorney General’s Office (deputy, 2023–2025; assistant, 2018–2019)
• West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals (law clerk for Justice Tim Armstead, 2019–2023; law clerk for Judge Paul Blake, 2012–2013)
• General practice (Beckley, WV, 2013–2018; Fillmore, NY, 2000–2006)
• West Virginia House of Delegates (2015 Session)
• Liberty University School of Law (Assistant Professor, 2006–2012)
  • Taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Environmental Law,
    State & Local Government, Legal History
  • Co-Coach, Negotiations Competition Team
  • Advisor, Federalist Society, Intellectual Property & Technology Law Society
• Liberty University Online (Adjunct Professor, 2010–2012); taught Legal Issues in Business
• Natural Gas Utility (Board of Directors, 2005–2019)
• Allegany County District Attorney’s Office (assistant, 2001–2003)
• Big firm corporate practice (New York, NY, 1998–2000)

Biography

Professor Gilbert earned his Juris Doctor degree at Columbia University School of Law, where he was recognized as a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and served as a Member and Managing Editor of the Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems.

Professor Gilbert began his career in New York City, where he worked on acquisitions, joint ventures, asset transfers, IPOs, and other securities, finance, and corporate law matters.  Later, he moved to western New York, where he joined a small general practice and worked for a time as a part-time assistant district attorney.  Much of his private practice involved representing municipalities and schools.

In 2007, Professor Gilbert joined Liberty University School of Law for the first time.  He taught Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Environmental Law, State and Local Government, and Legal History.  He also served with Professor Hesch as co-coach of the Law School’s highly successful negotiations competition team.  While he was at the law school, he presented a paper at Ovidius University of Constanza (Romania).  This paper was published as Lessons from Theodicy: The Problem of Evil and the Limits of Governmental Power, 5 Liberty Univ. Law Rev. 379 (2011).

Professor Gilbert moved to West Virginia in 2012.  There he clerked for Circuit Judge Paul M. Blake, Jr., and later entered general practice with two Liberty University School of Law graduates.  During the 2015 legislative session, Professor Gilbert served as per diem counsel for three House of Delegates committees.  After several years in private practice, Professor Gilbert joined the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office as an assistant attorney general in the Tax & Revenue, Claims Commission & Transportation Division.  From there, he went on to serve as staff attorney (law clerk) for Justice Tim Armstead of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.  In 2023, Professor Gilbert returned to the Attorney General’s Office as a deputy in the main office division.  Though he was known as a “utility player” because of his capacity to assist other divisions, the largest share of his work was for the Solicitor General’s Division.  He was on three multi-state amicus briefs to the United States Supreme Court, including Indiana and West Virginia’s merits brief in Trump v. Anderson, and West Virginia’s cert.-stage brief in Klee v. IUOE, Loc. 501, No. 24-1306.

He is admitted in New York and West Virginia, as well as the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Northern District of West Virginia, and the Southern District of West Virginia.

Professor Gilbert is married to his college sweetheart, award-winning author Heather Day Gilbert.  They have four children and a grandson.