Two U.S. District Court judges who preside over cases in the Mountain State are receiving the West Virginia University College of Laws highest honor during events this weekend for WVU s 136 th Commencement.

Chief Judge Irene M. Keeley and Judge Frederick P. Stamp Jr. will receive the Justitia Officium Award during the colleges hooding ceremony at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 14, in the Creative Arts Center.

Both judges hear cases in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, and both were appointed to the bench by President George H.W. Bush.

The award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to the legal profession, was established in 1978 to commemorate the College of Laws 100 th anniversary.

Chief Judge Irene Keeley

Judge Keeley, who hears cases in Clarksburg, was appointed in 1992 and named Chief Judge of the district in 2001.

She is a WVU College of Law graduate who also earned a masters degree from the states flagship university. She came to WVU after earning an A.B. from the College of Notre Dame, in Maryland.

Judge Keeley is a member and past chair of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges of the American Bar Association, and serves on the B oard of Directors of the American Judicature Society. She is also president-elect of the Federal Judges Association.

She is a member of the Bankruptcy Rules Advisory committee of the Judicial Conference and sits on the Judicial Council of the Fourth Circuit. She was also named a Fellow of the West Virginia Bar Foundation in 2004.

Judge Keeley has kept ties with WVU over the years, serving on the College of Law Visiting Committee and as an adjunct professor of law.

She is a past chair of the Universitys Board of Advisors, the University Alumni Associations Board of Directors and is the current chair of the Vandalia Selection Committee.

In 2000, she was named an Outstanding Alumna of WVU and was inducted in 2003 to WVU s Order of Vandalia. She formerly practiced law in Clarksburg with the law firm of Steptoe&Johnson PLLC .

Judge Frederick P. Stamp Jr.

Judge Stamp was appointed in 1990 to hear cases in Wheeling and served as Chief Judge of the Northern District from 1994-2001.

His outreach work has taken him beyond the bench to serve in the state Legislature and as a past president of the former state Board of Regents.

He has also held a seat on the Advisory Board of WVU s Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center.

Judge Stamp is a member and past president of the Ohio County Bar Association and the West Virginia Bar Association, and is a former president of Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia Inc.

He is also a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and the American Bar Foundation, and is a chair of the Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction of the Judicial Conference of the United States.

Judge Stamp currently represents the state of West Virginia on the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, and is president of the Fourth Circuit District JudgesAssociation.

He has served on the WVU College of Law Visiting Committee and the Development Council of the College of Law.

He holds degrees from Washington&Lee University and the University of Richmond Law School. He formerly practiced law in Wheeling with the firm of Schrader, Stamp, Byrd, Byrum&Companion, PLLC .