From Farmington to the Federal Bench, Michael Aloi Earns Judicial Excellence Award

CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Before Michael J. Aloi spent nearly three decades practicing law in Fairmont, before he became a circuit judge and before his career brought him to the federal bench in Clarksburg, his story began in the small Marion County community of Farmington.

That more than four-decade legal career was recognized this summer when the West Virginia Bar Association honored Aloi as the 2026 recipient of the Frederick P. Stamp Jr. Award for Judicial Excellence during its annual meeting in Charleston. The award was presented as part of the association’s July 17 awards banquet.

The recognition provides a reason to look back at the path that brought Aloi from Farmington to West Virginia Wesleyan College, WVU College of Law, a 28-year legal practice in Fairmont and ultimately the federal bench serving north-central West Virginia.

The Frederick P. Stamp Jr. Award was established in 2023 in honor of the longtime senior U.S. district judge for the Northern District of West Virginia. It recognizes a current, retired or senior state or federal judge who has contributed significantly to the administration of justice in West Virginia.

In selecting Aloi, the Bar Association pointed to a career that has included private practice, mediation, treatment courts, professional leadership, legal education and mentoring.

But Aloi’s path to the judiciary began much closer to home.

He grew up in Farmington, a Marion County coal community that was forever changed while Aloi was still a child.

Aloi was 10 years old when an explosion at the Farmington No. 9 Mine on Nov. 20, 1968, killed 78 miners. He has spoken in later years about neighbors and fathers of classmates being among those lost and the uncertainty surrounding an uncle who worked at the mine.

The experience became part of the West Virginia upbringing that preceded a legal career largely spent in the same region.

Aloi attended West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon, where he served as student body president. He graduated in 1980.

He then attended the West Virginia University College of Law, earning his law degree in 1983. Aloi was the only member of his law school class to receive both the Order of the Coif, recognizing academic achievement, and the Order of Barristers, recognizing excellence in advocacy.

Rather than taking his law degree elsewhere, Aloi returned to north-central West Virginia.

He spent the next 28 years in private practice in Fairmont and was a founding partner of Manchin & Aloi. During those years, mediation became an increasingly important part of his work.

In 1987, Aloi was selected as a mediator for the Northern District of West Virginia’s Pilot Settlement Week Program. He would eventually mediate more than 2,500 cases and became the only West Virginia lawyer selected as a Fellow of the American College of Civil Trial Mediators.

His involvement in the legal profession also extended beyond his own practice.

Aloi served as president of the Marion County Bar Association from 1996 to 1997 and as president of the West Virginia State Bar from 2002 to 2003. His professional service included work involving alternative dispute resolution, judicial independence and legal education.

After 28 years practicing law, Aloi’s career took another turn in 2011.

Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin appointed him to the 16th Judicial Circuit in Marion County on July 8, 2011, filling the vacancy created by the retirement of Circuit Judge Fred L. Fox II. Aloi began work on the bench that August.

Marion County voters elected him the following year to complete the unexpired circuit court term.

His time as a circuit judge also expanded a part of his work that would continue into federal court: using treatment and other alternatives within the justice system to address some of the underlying problems contributing to criminal behavior.

Aloi established Marion County’s first drug court, combining judicial supervision and accountability with treatment for eligible participants dealing with substance use.

His work with treatment courts would become a continuing part of his judicial career.

In 2015, Aloi moved from the state judiciary to the federal courts.

He began serving as a U.S. magistrate judge for the Northern District of West Virginia on Oct. 1, 2015, with responsibilities connected to the federal courts in Clarksburg and Elkins.

U.S. magistrate judges handle a range of federal court responsibilities, including preliminary criminal proceedings, pretrial matters and other duties assigned by district judges.

For Aloi, the move also provided an opportunity to continue work involving treatment, rehabilitation and alternatives to traditional incarceration.

His federal judicial work has included involvement with drug court and the creation of a veterans diversion program. Those programs are designed to provide eligible participants with intensive supervision and services while maintaining accountability through the court system.

That work was on display as recently as 2025, when Aloi joined members of the Northern District’s drug court team during a program for West Virginia educators hosted at the WVU College of Law.

“We deal with the most personal aspects of people’s lives,” Aloi told the educators while discussing the role of the courts and justice system.

Aloi’s relationship with WVU College of Law has also continued long after he was a student there.

He has worked with future lawyers as a clinical supervisor and adjunct professor for more than two decades and has participated in legal training programs, moot court competitions and other efforts connecting students with practicing attorneys and judges.

In 2018, the WVU College of Law faculty presented Aloi with the Justitia Officium Award, the faculty’s highest honor, recognizing outstanding contributions and service to the legal profession.

The Frederick P. Stamp Jr. Award for Judicial Excellence adds another recognition to a career that has moved through several different corners of the law without moving far from where it began.

Farmington led Aloi to West Virginia Wesleyan in Buckhannon and WVU College of Law in Morgantown. His law degree brought him back to Fairmont for 28 years of private practice, then to the Marion County bench and eventually into the federal court system serving Clarksburg and the Northern District of West Virginia.

More than 40 years after beginning his legal career, Aloi remains at work in the same part of West Virginia where his story started.