MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (WBOY) — A Monongalia County Judicial Circuit Judge will retire at the end of the year, according to a press release sent by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals Wednesday.

Circuit Judge Phillip D. Gaujot. Credit: West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals

Seventeenth Judicial Circuit Judge Phillip D. Gaujot is retiring after more than 13 years on the 17th Judicial Circuit Court. The West Virginia University graduate and lifelong West Virginia resident began his law career as an assistant attorney general. He was appointed by then-Governor Joe Manchin in 2009 after the Legislature added a third seat to the circuit and won re-election in 2012 and 2016.

Gaujot practiced in various courts including the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. District Courts of Appeals for the Third and Fourth Circuits, the U.S. District Courts and Bankruptcy Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, circuit courts and magistrate courts throughout West Virginia and Virginia, and the Court of Common Pleas in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, according to the release.

Judge Gaujot also represented clients before the West Virginia Court of Claims, West Virginia Public Service Commission, West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission, and the U.S. Social Security Administration, the release said.

He has also served as counsel for the cities of Nitro and Shinnston, as the Sheriff of Kanawha County, on the House of Delegates’ Finance Committee, as a hearing examiner for the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Commission, as an administrative law judge for Workforce West Virginia, on the West Virginia University Alumni Association and on the Board of Directors of the Mon General Hospital Foundation.