Meet The Candidate

A Raleigh County native, I am the second of three daughters of Dennis and Elissa Lindsay. I grew up in Maxwell Hill, in Beckley. My dad is a retired coal miner and realtor, and my mom is a mostly-retired speech pathologist. I attended St. Francis de Sales School and Beckley Junior High, and graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School in 1995. During high school, I worked as a hostess at the Bob Evans on Harper Road; during the summers I came home from college, I worked as a waitress at Applebee’s and in the lawn & garden center at Lowe’s. (It’s entirely possible that my dad was prouder the day I came home from Lowe’s with a forklift license than he was the day I came home with a law license!)

I graduated from West Virginia University with a degree in History in 1999, and then graduated from the WVU College of Law in 2002. After graduation, I had the incredible experience of serving as the law clerk to the eminent Hon. Arthur M. Recht in Wheeling for two years, and then worked as an associate attorney at the stellar Wheeling firm of Phillips, Gardill, Kaiser & Altmeyer, PLLC for six years. Clerking for Judge Recht gave me remarkable insight into how judges should conduct themselves and their courtrooms, the mechanics of running of a judge’s office, and how to keep a docket moving. To this day, I maintain he was the most intelligent person I have ever known, and he was a wonderful mentor to me. Working at PGKA, a business-focused firm, also provided invaluable experience, where I learned the day-to-day practice of law from top-notch lawyers.

A quick story as to how I was selected by Judge Recht from his pool of applicant clerks: it was due to a car wreck. During my second year of law school, when I was on my way home for Christmas break, I was in a terrible car wreck. Both of my ankles were badly broken, and I spent the next three months completely non-weight-bearing, and so in a wheelchair, before progressing to walking casts. Unable to drive but unwilling to take a semester off, I moved in with my sister Michelle, who was then a third-year law student. When interviewing with the Judge nearly a year later, he noted from my transcript that during that particular semester, my grades were lower in spite of taking somewhat easier classes, and inquired as to why. When I explained, he was so impressed with my work ethic and that I stayed in school during that semester, that he offered me the job.

In 2010, my husband, Matt, and I decided that we wanted to raise our family closer to family, and moved back to Beckley. He’s a physical therapist at a local hospital and a Major in the US Army Medical Reserves. Since returning home, I’ve served as the supervising attorney of the local office of a statewide non-profit law firm, and since 2013, I’ve also had a private practice, Bechtel Law Office, PLLC, through which I mostly serve as a guardian ad litem to children and am a state-certified family court mediator. I took a several-week sabbatical from the non-profit firm in 2013, as Judge Recht asked me to clerk for him again in a mass litigation trial; I jumped at the chance to do so and learn more from him. Since 2018, I have served on the City of Beckley’s Human Rights Commission; that same year, my friend Karen and I founded Red Bench Weddings, LLC, through which we frequently officiate at weddings.

The work I’ve done for the non-profit firm has focused on protecting vulnerable individuals and families, in areas such as housing, domestic violence, divorces, adoptions, name changes, and child custody. For nearly 10 years, I’ve held a monthly free walk-in clinic at the Beckley VA Medical Center, to assist our area’s veterans with various civil legal issues. For the past several years, my work has been state-wide, and focuses on representing individuals to help them overcome barriers to employment, such as criminal record expungements and regaining their driver’s licenses.

As you can see, my legal career has focused on service to our community. It is my sincere hope that I may continue to do so as a judge of our circuit court.

Marie C. Bechtel
Candidate for Raleigh County Circuit Court Judge