Experience shaped by people, institutions, and community.

MEET LAYNE

A career connected by a common purpose

Layne’s career has included legal practice, higher education, organizational leadership, and business. Across those settings, her work has involved a recurring question: how can institutions and legal resources better support the people who depend on them?

Years in higher education focused much of her attention on making education and opportunity accessible to everyday people. Executive and general counsel experience added a practical understanding of the responsibilities involved in leading organizations, supporting employees, and making consequential decisions.

From opportunity to family preservation

When Layne entered private practice, she anticipated a substantial focus on small businesses, entrepreneurs, and working people. As the needs of West Virginia families came into sharper focus, child welfare became an increasingly significant part of her work.

Her experience includes child welfare litigation, service as Guardian ad Litem, representation of parents and other respondents, and representation involving grandparents, relatives, and caregivers. Appellate work, adoption, and guardianship further inform her understanding of how decisions affect families over time.

These experiences reinforce a belief that advocacy should account for the whole setting of a person’s life: relationships, responsibilities, stability, and the community around them.

Perspective that carries across the practice

Layne’s small business and employment work remains an important part of Diehl Law. Her background in community and organizational leadership brings additional perspective to clients building livelihoods, managing organizations, or planning for their families.

She approaches this work with experience, careful judgment, and a commitment to making complicated questions more understandable. Legal problems call for thoughtful advocacy and practical problem-solving grounded in the lives of the people involved.