Mr. Hicks' primary areas of practice are mediation/arbitration.  His former practice consisted entirely of litigation with a focus on product liability, premises liability, construction law, employment law, corporate and commercial litigation, insurance law cases, medical malpractice defense, and higher education law.  Other areas of personal interest or community service relevant to my mediation practice include:

• West Virginia State Bar, President, 1998 - 1999 - Representative, West Virginia State Bar Board of Governors, 1993 - 1996.
• Received the Justicia Officium Award by the West Virginia University College of Law in May, 2021.  The award is the highest honor bestowed by the law faculty in recognition of outstanding contributions and service to the legal profession.
• 2019 Martin Luther King Holiday Commission "Governor's Living the Dream Award" recipient given to the "person who best exemplifies all of the characteristics of justice, scholarship, sharing of self, human and civil rights, and  advocacy of peace; with a recognizable sense of civic awareness and public service."
• Appointed by Governor Joe Manchin to the Board of Governors of Concord University, serving eight-year term from 2009 to 2017.  Chairman of the Board of Governors 2013 to 2017
• Elected by the Board of Directors of the West Virginia Humanities Council to become a member of that board in 2015, now serving as Treasurer of the Council
• Created a fundraising dinner for retiring Professor Franklin D. Cleckley at the Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences in March, 2013 raising over $33,000 in his honor toward the Innocence Project, providing legal assistance for wrongly convicted inmates
• Appointed by West Virginia Governor Cecil Underwood to serve on the Higher Education Policy Commission, created by the West Virginia Legislature to establish policy for all state-supported colleges and universities, and then reappointed by Governor Bob Wise to a full term, serving from 2000 to 2007 and rising to become Vice-Chairman of  the Commission
• Board of Directors for the Legal Aid Society of Charleston, 1990-1996
• Charleston Economic and Community Development Corporation board member
• Chairman of the Kanawha County Housing and Redevelopment Authority
• Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the First Baptist Church of Charleston, 1990 to 2002, and a member of the Board from 1986
• Congregation President and Board of Trustees Chairman for the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Charleston for two terms from 2007 to 2010, and a member of the Board for two one-year terms beginning 2005
• Board of Directors of the West Virginia Bar Foundation, and Chairman of the IOLTA Committee of the Bar Foundation, 2000 to 2006, which administered tens of million dollars in funds that are contributed from interest on lawyers' trust accounts to provide legal services to the poor

• Washington and Lee University, 1974 - 1976 
• West Virginia University, B.A. in Political Science, 1978
• West Virginia University College of Law, J.D., 1981

• American Bar Association, House of Delegates, 1998 - 1999 
• American College of Trial Lawyers, Fellow, 2007 
• West Virginia Bar Foundation, Fellow, 2005 
• American Bar Foundation, Fellow, 2011 
• Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, Member 
• American Inns of Court, Judge John A. Field, Jr. Chapter, Charter Member as Master of the Bench, 2002 
• DRI, Member 
• Appointed by the Honorable Elliott E. Maynard, then-Chief Justice of the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals, to serve on a commission to devise standard jury instructions for West Virginia cases, 2000 
• Kanawha County Bar Association, President, 1988 - 1989
• Licensed Contractor, WV Department of Labor, License number WV057302
• Best Lawyers in America, Commercial Litigation and Mediation

$320 hr.