Tom Heywood
Managing Partner
Bowles Rice LLP
Maggie Matsko
For Tom Heywood, managing partner of Bowles Rice LLP, the
saying rings true that no matter how far you go, you always end
up where you belong. That place for Heywood is West Virginia.
“I consider myself twice blessed,” he says. “I am a West
Virginian by birth and a West Virginian by choice.” Heywood
grew up in Charleston but moved to California after his senior
year of high school, when his father was transferred for work.
After Heywood earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford
University and his law degree from Harvard Law School, he
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returned to Charleston to join Bowles Rice. Named a partner
in 1987, he left in 1989 to serve as general counsel and then
chief of staff to former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton, returning to the firm in 1993. He was named managing
partner in 2008, and today he also oversees the firm’s government relations practice.
For Heywood, the satisfaction that comes from helping others
solve problems is why he chose to be a lawyer, and he was fortunate enough to realize this early on in his career. “After my