Ronda L. Harvey

Ronda L. Harvey is a partner in the Charleston office of Bowles Rice and concentrates her practice in deliberate intent actions, products liability and insurance bad faith and coverage cases. Her most recent achievements include defending a large West Virginia employer in a deliberate intent trial and winning a complete defense verdict. Ms. Harvey has also represented defendants in mass tort and complex products liability civil actions.

She is a member of the Defense Research Institute, serving on both the Products Liability and Insurance Committees. Since 2004, she has attended the Defense Research Institute’s annual three-day continuing legal education seminar on products liability. She has defended several national clients in product liability litigation, including pathology laboratories and manufacturers of medical equipment, mining roof bolts, boom cranes and respirators. She successfully defended a manufacturer of cranes in mass hearing loss litigation in McDowell County. She is a member of the Defense Trial Counsel of West Virginia and actively participates on the Products Liability Committee.

In 1984, Ms. Harvey graduated, magna cum laude, with a bachelor of science degree in journalism and advertising from West Virginia University. In 1993, she earned her law degree from West Virginia University College of Law, where she served as executive editor, Student Works for the West Virginia Law Review and was a member of the Lugar Trial Association.

She is admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia and has presented several appeals with great success. The appeal of Gandee v. Allstate Indemnity Company, 208 W.Va. 697 (2000), reinforced the statutory requirements for insurance cancellation notices and in writing and arguing that appeal, Ms. Harvey convinced the Supreme Court her clients’ cancellation notice met those requirements and cancelled the policy at issue. The appeal of Pennington v. Allstate Insurance Company, 202 W.Va. 178 (1998) set the standard for the renewal of a lapsed insurance policy. She also is admitted to practice before the U. S. District Courts for the Northern and Southern Districts of West Virginia.

She is a member of the Kanawha County Bar Association and the West Virginia State Bar. She is a past president and serves on the executive council of The West Virginia Bar Association and is past president of the Young Lawyers Division of The West Virginia Bar Association. She has been a member of the executive committee of the Kanawha County Bar Association since 2005. In 2007, she joined the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Civil Justice Reform Committee, and has participated in meetings to establish legislative reform in areas that impact civil litigation.

She has been recognized with an AV-rating by Martindale-Hubbell. She was named to Best Lawyers in America 2014 in the area of Product Liability Litigation - Defendants.