Michael Edward Nogay

Tri-State Litigation Attorney

INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Mike Nogay is a rarity: a seasoned trial lawyer who has tried cases before juries in three states. From a multi-million dollar jury verdict in a complicated medical malpractice case to yet another felony trial victory, Mr. Nogay’s record in the courtroom speaks for itself. Although his law office is located in West Virginia, nearly half of his legal practice is in the state of Ohio due to its close proximity only a few miles away.

Mike has been selected for Super Lawyers NINE separate times (limited to only 5% of the lawyers statewide) in 2009, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023 and has the highest rating Avvo award (“superb”). Mr. Nogay has also been selected as a Barrister in the American Inns of Court for the US District Court in Wheeling. More info about the American Inns of Court can be found here.

Mr. Nogay earned his undergraduate degree from West Virginia University, magna cum laude, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and served as editor of the Daily Athenaeum. Mr. Nogay received his law degree in 1983 from Washington & Lee University in Virginia, where he was a Benedum Academic Scholar, and subsequently passed the bar examinations in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

While in law school, Mr. Nogay volunteered to provide legal aid at the Alderson Federal Correctional Institution for Women, driving nearly 200 miles roundtrip on each visit.

Mike and his wife of over 30 years, Robin, are the parents of triplets, all of whom are now pursuing professional degrees in graduate school.

PROFESSIONAL AWARDS and RECOGNITION

For 2023, Mr. Nogay was selected once again to West Virginia Super Lawyers and was a former repeat selection for membership in the National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 Trial Lawyers. Also, the National Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys recognized Mr. Nogay for its “Top 10 Attorney Award for the State of West Virginia” in 2014. Three separate organizations have recognized Mr. Nogay for his lawyering.

Selected, West Virginia Super Lawyers, 2009, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022 and 2023.
Selected, The National Trial Lawyers Top 100 .
Selected, “10 Best Attorneys” for West Virginia, American Institute of Criminal Law Attorneys (2017).

PROFESSIONAL TEACHING, PUBLIC SERVICE AND TV LEGAL ANALYST EXPERIENCE

At the national level, Mr. Nogay was the local NBC/FOX on-air legal analyst for WTOV-9 in the Steubenville rape case and the subsequent special grand jury investigation. On October 10, 2015, Mr. Nogay was selected as a guest faculty lecturer at the WVU College of Law for a continuing legal education program on that subject.

Mr. Nogay was honored to be selected to lecture at the 2016 WV Public Defender Services annual convention in June at Stonewall Resort on the topic of “Innovative Motion Practice.”

Mr. Nogay was also a guest lecturer for the West Viginia College of Law CLE series held at Canaan Valley in 1997, presenting on the topic, “You Can’t Win if You Can’t Cross Examine.”

Mike has also served as an on-air legal analyst for the local NBC/FOX TV affiliate on a wide-range of other legal issues.

Mike has been selected to give the commencement address at Weirton Madonna High School and has made presentation at other local high schools and for local history groups in Weirton, Steubenville, Wellsburg, Wheeling, Cadiz and Moundsville. He has also been the featured speaker before local chapters of the Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution, including presenting a lecture to the Fort Henry Chapter in Wheeling in 2017.

COURTROOM AND TRIAL EXPERIENCE

Always ask your lawyer about his or her actual court experience before making a decision regarding who to retain in a tough case.

While most cases are resolved by settlements, it is best to proceed as if your case may end up being tried before a judge or jury. Insurance companies know which lawyers settle early and which lawyers would just as soon fight for their client in a courtroom. Experienced lawyers are always at a premium. Mr. Nogay is very experienced, having tried tough cases in courtrooms over the past 30 years

Mr. Nogay is admitted to practice law in state and federal courts in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania and has tried cases before juries in each of those states. His primary litigation focus has been on medical malpractice and serious personal injury cases. Mike and his law partner, Jim Sellitti, have what is believed to be the largest civil jury verdict in Hancock County (WV) history in a medical malpractice case: $2.75 million.

Mr. Nogay has tried cases before juries in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, and has represented clients throughout the tri-state area, including:

West Virginia: Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall, Monongalia, Kanawha and other counties statewide.

Ohio: Jefferson, Belmont, Harrison and Columbiana counties.

Pennsylvania: Washington, Allegheny and Beaver counties.

Federal Courts: Northern District of West Virginia; Western District of Pennsylvania and the Southern District of Ohio.

On June 13, 2019, Attorney Mike Nogay won yet another NOT GUILTY verdict in U.S District Court in Wheeling, WV, on behalf of a Pennsylvania resident physician who was treating patients in a Suboxone clinic. The physician was originally charged in the indictment with 10 counts, including conspiracy to violate federal drug laws, downstream health care fraud and illegal distribution. The case was designated “complex litigation” by the federal judge due to the volume of documents and evidence. After a 9-day jury trial, the jurors returned a NOT GUILTY verdict on all charges. It was Mr. Nogay’s most recent victory in a federal criminal case.

In 2014, Mr. Nogay was recognized in federal court in Wheeling as an expert witness in the area of law and ethical issues involving conflicts of interest in Am. Heartland Port, Inc. v. Am. Port Holdings, Inc., 53 F. Supp. 3d 871, 880 (N.D.W. Va. 2014) aff’d, No. 14-1801, 2015 WL 8776727 (4th Cir. Dec. 15, 2015).

Mr. Nogay also successfully litigated an important decision in an oil and gas matter in federal court concerning binding arbitration clauses in leases that was widely-reported. (See, Heller v. TriEnergy, Inc., 877 F. Supp. 2d 414 (USDC NDWV, 2012).

Mr. Nogay successfully argued in the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals the seminal case of Harris v. Adkins, 189 W. Va. 465, 468, 432 S.E.2d 549, 552 (1993) which clarified the U.S. Supreme Court’s Noerr-Pennington doctrine of immunity for persons addressing grievances in a governmental forum.

Mr. Nogay has also argued and/or been on brief in several case before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals; see, e.g., State ex rel. Longanacre v. Crabtree, 177 W. Va. 132, 350 S.E.2d 760 (1986); Lyons v. Lyons, 179 W. Va. 712, 715, 371 S.E.2d 640, 643 (1988); Harris v. Adkins, 189 W. Va. 465, 432 S.E.2d 549 (1993); Mayo v. W. Virginia Secondary Sch. Activities Comm’n, 223 W. Va. 88, 672 S.E.2d 224 (2008); Kokochak v. W. Virginia State Lottery Comm’n, 225 W. Va. 614, 695 S.E.2d 185 (2010).; State ex rel. WVSSAC v. Webster, 228 W.Va. 75, 717 S.E.2d 859 (2011).

On November 13, 2014, Mr. Nogay won yet another jury verdict acquittal in a felony assault (F-2) criminal trial in St. Clairsville, Belmont County, Ohio. He has also tried a first degree murder case in Brooke County and a federal use of force case in federal court in Wheeling.

Mr. Nogay has been honored to have served as Special Disciplinary Counsel, handling lawyer discipline cases for the West Virginia State Bar Office of Lawyer Disciplinary Counsel and has obtained a conviction as a Special Prosecuting Attorney in a felony murder case in Wheeling, West Virginia (See,State v. Wade, 490 SE 2d 724 (W. Va. Supreme Court of Appeals, 1997).

Mike was also appointed by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals as a special hearing examiner in several discrimination cases before the West Virginia Human Rights Commission and issued the underlying decisions in cases such as Kerns v Bucklew, 357 S.E. 2d 750 (W.Va. 1987) (abrogating state immunity in employment discrimination cases) and Chico Dairy Co. v. HRC, 382 S.E. 2d 75 (W.Va. 1989) (perceived handicap).

Mr. Nogay has successfully tried major criminal cases in both federal and state courts and has won acquittals in cases ranging from counterfeiting to vehicular homicide to drug conspiracy, as well as obtaining a felony murder conviction in Wheeling, WV while serving as a special prosecutor. The National Academy of Criminal Defense Attorneys recognized Mr. Nogay for its “Top 10 Attorney Award for the State of West Virginia” in 2014.

Mr. Nogay is associated with the four lawyer litigation firm of Sellitti, Nogay & Nogay, PLLC. Mr. Nogay has extensive civil and criminal litigation experience, including medical malpractice and auto accident cases as well as oil and gas litigation and lease negotiations regarding the Marcellus and Utica shale formations in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania, on behalf of land and mineral owners, and major developers alike.

Mr. Nogay was honored to have been appointed by West Virginia Gov. Gaston Caperton to the West Virginia State Ethics Commission and served as its first secretary. He has also served as an elected member of the Hancock County Board of Education.

PERSONAL AND FAMILY BACKGROUND

Mr. Nogay is a lifelong resident of the Weirton area and was raised in a family of 8 children. His father, Edward, was a combat-wounded US Army officer, who then graduated from Texas Christian University on the GI Bill and subsequently taught middle school in West Virginia for 30 years while also serving two terms as an elected Hancock County Commissioner. His mother, Theresa Gromek Nogay, was a physical education major at West Liberty State College who was a stay-at-home mom and a Catholic catechism teacher for decades.

Mike has been married to his wife, Robin, for over 30 years. They are the parents of three children, Eddie (an All-American pitcher at Washington & Jefferson College who earned an NCAA post-graduate scholarship and who is a recent Order of the Coif graduate of the WVU College of Law. Eddie will be starting a two-year federal judicial clerkship in August of 2017); Maximillian (a former catcher for the West Virginia University baseball team and a First Team All-Academic Big XII Conference selection, who is a third-year law school student at the WVU College of Law); and Jennifer (a biology graduate of the University of Pittsburgh who is a veterinary graduate student at the Ross University School of Veterinary Medicine. Jennifer will begin her Clinical Veterinary residency at The Ohio State University School of Veterinary Medicine in August of 2017). As head wrestling coach at Weirton Madonna High School, Nogay coached his son Max to three state finals appearances and two West Virginia high school state championships.

Mr. Nogay authored an academically-praised history book on the military fortifications in the Ohio Valley during the American Revolutionary War titled, Every Home a Fort, Every Man a Warrior. The book earned him a West Virginia History Hero award from West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin. Nogay was also awarded a “Key to the Museum” in June of 2017 by the Weirton Area Museum for his efforts to preserve local history.

Link to Johns Hopkins University website with scholarly review of book:

http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/west_virginia_history/summary/v004/4.2.scharff.html

Mr. Nogay is also a nationally-recognized expert on antique fishing tackle, and is the founder of the Old Reel Collectors Association, Inc. (ORCA) — a non-profit organization of vintage fishing reel collectors, with nearly 800 members in over a dozen countries. http://orca-online.org/. Mike was chosen to write the forward for the seminal book on American fishing reels, The History of the Fishing Reel, published in 2015.

Mike is an avid outdoors-man who likes to hunt and shoot sporting clays as well as fish in the two bass ponds on his property. Mike cuts and splits his own firewood and has made several pieces of Adirondack-style rustic furniture for friends and family.

Mr. Nogay also serves as the live TV on-air high school wrestling analyst for WTOV9 during the 50+ school Ohio Valley Athletic Conference wrestling finals– considered by many to be the largest annual conference wrestling tournament in the USA.

REQUIRED DISCLAIMER: Each case is different and the results above do not guarantee a successful or similar outcome in any future case handled by Mr. Nogay or his law firm.