Martha J. Hill is More Than A Lawyer
Martha Hill has lived a life of public service, starting her career after her 1978 graduation from the West Virginia University College of Law as a law clerk for Federal Magistrate Maurice G. Taylor, Jr., in Huntington, before working as a career law clerk for United States District Judge, Dennis R. Knapp, in Charleston. She has served as also an Administrative Law Judge for the West Virginia Workers’ Compensation Office of Judges from 1996 to 2022, and as a Hearing Examiner for the Workers’ Compensation Board of Review where she worked from 2022 through her retirement on October 1, 2025.
Along the way she has also worked for the West Virginia Public Service Commission and a private law firm, specializing in labor law, and as General Counsel to the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, and was the Director of the Office of Child Support Enforcement.
Martha was nominated by Joan Parker who says, “Martha is More Than A Lawyer because while lawyers advocate for their clients’ interests, Martha advocates for everyone who needs advocacy. She personifies advocacy in the fullest extent of that word. She advocates for people who cannot advocate for themselves.”
Parker, a survivor of the 2016 Clendenin flood, recalls how Martha and her husband leveraged their connections to help flood survivors, arranging a special donation collection for survivors through a State Bar committee meeting, and even arranging through the YMCA Board to offer free one-year membership to Clendenin flood survivors. “Whenever there is a need, she always seems to know how to help,” says Parker. “She is very involved in the church’s outreach to the homeless,” especially the Friday night dinners for the homeless. “She doesn’t have an arrogant bone in her body. She sits at the same table as homeless people who have issues with mental health or substance abuse.”
Perhaps, most intriguingly, Martha is a pannist—a musician who plays the steelpan, more commonly known as the steel drum. As a member of the St. Mark’s Steel, a steel drum band with eight members formed through St. Mark’s Church in Charleston, Martha and her fellow musicians play at church services, State Bar meetings, WVU alumni functions, birthday and retirement parties, art openings, and Clay Center functions. For more than a decade St. Mark’s Steel has also given a New Year’s Eve concert at the church.
“You cannot hear steel drums and be sad,” says Martha. “They’re joyful instruments. I like the joy [the music] brings people.” She explains that as a pannist, “it makes you feel you’re alive, and I like the fact they’re from the islands, and the shared culture.” The steel drums which come from the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago, were originally purchased for St. Mark’s by a member of the church for the children’s instrumental band. When many of those children graduated and the drums fell into disuse, adult members of the church, including Hill, formed the St. Mark’s Steel.
In addition to her drumming, Ms. Hill is an active tennis player, engages in non-profit work including Justice & Advocacy Team through her church, community gardening, yoga, international travel, and State Bar committee work. A 1975 graduate of Marshall University, she resides in Charleston with her husband Mark W. Stotler, and they have four married sons and thirteen grandchildren.
