Profile: John C. Stump
Compiled from staff reports
If a person is defined by what he or she does, then John Stump’s roles in life depict what a caring and devoted person he is to his family, his community, and his job. By day, he serves as a member of the law firm of Steptoe and Johnson. By night and weekend, he is a husband, father, and coach of youth basketball and soccer teams. A native of Sissonville, this natural leader knows how to bring people together, how to seal deals, and how to call plays – all with one goal in mind: Leave things better than you found them.
Stump’s down-to-earth nature stems from his roots. “I grew up on a dirt road without city water and without city sewer,” he says. “It was a nice community, pretty rural, and that gave me good grounding. I had an early sense of reality, and I think that was very important.”
While in school, Stump’s first job as a lifeguard provided him with opportunities to realize the importance of interpersonal skills such as customer service and communication—skills that are vital to his law practice today. “It was an amazing experience to be a teenager and learn then how to read people, how to help them, and how to make wise decisions that affected them,” he recalls. “I became very aware of what motivated people, and I think from that perspective it was a great job because it forced me to be customer-service minded. You can never have too many of those experiences,” he adds.
Stump’s parents, both school teachers, encouraged him to excel as a student and to continue his education beyond college. He attended West Virginia University for his undergraduate degree and then went on to Washington and Lee University School of Law in Virginia for his doctor of jurisprudence. He now works in the Charleston office of Steptoe and Johnson and concentrates on finance law, economic development initiatives, and commercial transactions.
The complexities of public finance law pose little challenge for Stump, who is in the midst of facilitating many projects that will benefit the state. When asked about his current workload, he speaks with ease about a technical topic that has his full attention at the given moment. “Community enhancement districts serve as a tool that developers can utilize to help finance infrastructure within the development,” Stump explains. “As a state, we face a number of situations in economic development including site preparation and utilities. An assessment district is another method to finance those sorts of improvements without any state subsidy.”
Stump went on to explain that other states have community enhancement districts, and by formulating legislation and creating them in The Mountain State, West Virginia can also reap the benefits of such strategies. “Right now we’re at a competitive disadvantage because we have not fully utilized this particular tool. However, I am excited about assessment districts, and it’s something that I feel is absolutely necessary for West Virginia’s economic development.”
Even though much of his work results in visible improvements throughout the state, such as creating jobs or bringing city water to communities, Stump is a very private person. He doesn’t seek out attention or advertisement, and he prefers to let his accomplishments speak for themselves. “I’d rather be the expert as opposed to being the person who spends his time trying to convince people of it. My experience, my client base, and the list of transaction deals speak for themselves. I’m really fortunate because I work with a great team, and I work with a great network of friends and clients who are often one and the same,” he says.
An example of this simplistic, behind-the-scenes attitude began about three years ago when he received a call from a lawyer friend of his in Princeton. The lawyer explained that he was working with a couple who wanted to build a performing arts center in the area and name it after their son who had died in a car accident. They had raised $7 million worth of funding but still needed $5 million more. “I said, ‘Well, that’s quite a story, and I don’t know if this will work definitively, but I think that I know of an agency that can help you,’” Stump says. Two years later he attended the check presentation ceremony where the couple received funding for the center, and Stump recalls it as one of the best moments of his career. “I drove to Princeton to watch the check be presented and to watch this couple’s dream and this area’s dream become a reality. That was one of the most memorable events of my career and I look forward to returning for the grand opening.”
While he is devoted to his career, Stump considers his family the great motivator in his life. He met his wife Crystal in law school and the couple will celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary this year. They have three children, two of whom were adopted from Guatemala. It all adds up to the blessings that Stump frequently counts. “I’m the luckiest person I know. I really am, because I am incredibly fortunate. I have a wonderful wife, I have three beautiful kids who are healthy and who are a lot of fun, I live in a state that I love, my family—my parents, my sister, my mother-in-law—they are all close by and I have a great law practice. I can say with honesty that I am content.”
Stump stays closely involved in the interests of his children and the community by coaching his sons’ and daughter’s sporting teams. “I coach an all-girl soccer team, and it’s a lot of fun, even through I’m not very good at soccer! I also coach my 7-year-old’s basketball team. It’s like herding cats, but I enjoy that a great deal,” he says, laughing.
His community involvement doesn’t stop there. Stump has been closely involved with MATRIC, the Mid-Atlantic Technology, Resource and Innovation Center, for many years. He initially wrote and developed the organizational documents to get it started, and he now serves on the board of directors. It is an especially rewarding endeavor, as MATRIC now has grown to have more than 70 employees. “Economic development is creating wealth and adding dollars to the pie,” Stump says. “That’s what an organization like MATRIC does. It wasn’t popular with some people in the beginning because it wasn’t political, and that’s too bad because we were trying to do the right thing—not what benefits an individual.”
Stump never forgets what lies behind his success, and he is so thankful for where he is today. “All my clients are friends and some of them are my best friends—people that I spend time with outside of work and want to see, regardless of what else is going on. I have a great practice and I work with people who I really like and respect, both as people and professionals. I’m incredibly lucky. I really am. Hard work only gets you so far. I always say, ‘The practice of law is 90 percent hard work. The other 10 percent is luck and, at some level, inheritability.’”
