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Thomas Tabor Jr.'s Biography

Tom Tabor working the coal mines Born on January 17, 1962 in Bluefield, West Virginia, Tom was raised by my parents, Velva Lane Jackson Tabor and Thomas J. Tabor Sr. at their home in Falls Mills, Virginia, where he attended the local elementary school. As Tom grew up, he ascended to Graham Junior High, and eventually graduated Graham High School in Bluefield, Virginia in June 1980. During those times, he enjoyed participating in football, baseball, and track. Tom is the eldest brother of two sisters and one brother.

After graduating high school, he worked part-time jobs and construction jobs prior to my entrance into Bluefield State College, Bluefield, West Virginia. Tom majored in Mining Engineering Technology and began working during the summers as an apprentice underground coal miner for Elk Run Coal Company, Inc., in Boone County, West Virginia for Douglas Blackburn, Jr. His success in academic studies allowed him to receive the West Virginia Board of Regents Scholarship and the A.T. Massey scholarship. Upon recommendation of faculty at Bluefield State College, Thomas Tabor was placed into the 1984 edition of Who’s Who among American College Students. He graduated from Bluefield State College with an Associate Degree in Mining Engineering Technology, with honors, and with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mining Engineering Technology, cum laude, during December 1984.

Tom immediately went to work underground for Elk Run Coal Company after finishing college and worked approximately nine months before enrolling in Virginia Tech to pursue a Master’s Degree in Mining Engineering. He attended Virginia Tech for the 1985-1986 school terms, and was offered another underground mining job with Consolidation Coal Company at its Buchanan No. 1 Mine in Mavisdale, Virginia. He accepted the job with Consol in 1986 until I was promoted to a supervisor at Consol’s Matthews Mines at Tackett Creek, Tennessee in June 1987.


Tom spent three years in Tennessee and found that he loved the Claiborne County, Tennessee and Bell County, Kentucky areas. He discovered that he enjoyed the area when he began hunting the grounds where Daniel Boone walked and enjoyed Norris Lake. During this time, Tom met his wife, Shelia Karen Inman Tabor from Straight Creek, Kentucky, and they were married in 1989. Due to the poor mining conditions and economics in Tennessee, he was transferred to Beckley, West Virginia to work at the Consolidation Coal Company, Rowland Mines in Clear Creek, West Virginia in September 1990. He and his wife moved into a new home in Beckley with their two children.

Mr. Tabor's mining experience grew from work history which had exposed him to several different mining systems from continuous mining to longwall mining. He received state certifications as a mine foreman in Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and later, in Kentucky. I learned a great deal of mining knowledge, and also witnessed many fellow miners either retire or become disabled.

Again, due to economic conditions and the continuing changing face of the mining industry, Tom and his family were faced with another transfer to Eastern Kentucky. In September 1991, he was transferred to Consolidation Coal Company of Kentucky Jones Fork Operations. He and his family moved to Van Lear, Kentucky (better known as Loretta Lynn’s homeplace). They lived there while Tom continued to work for Consol until he realized that I was working extremely long hours and was never home.

Tom consulted God for guidance and found that he was urged to sell all his possessions and go to law school at which time he immediately began preparations for law school. In the spring of 1998, he took the law school entrance exam, and in August 1998 my house sold, and I went to attend Appalachian School of Law, in Grundy, Virginia. Tom and his family lived at Hurley, Virginia, Grundy, Virginia, and finally at Mavisdale, Virginia where they met and made many friends.

Law school was definitely a learning experience. He studied law under the late Tony Sutin, Academic Dean, and other fine faculty members too numerous to mention. He was provided with the opportunity to work part-time for the school’s founder, Attorney Joe Wolfe. The Appalachian School of Law became provisionally accredited by the ABA during the year of 2000-2001. Tom Tabor graduated from the law school during May 2001.

He then took the bar exam at the end of the summer of 2001 in Knoxville, Tennessee. While he waited for the results, he worked as a clerk for the Honorable Circuit Judge Stephens and Honorable Circuit Judge Murensiky in McDowell County, West Virginia. He received notification that he had passed the Tennessee Bar Exam in October 2001.

At the end of the summer of 2002, Thomas Tabor and his family moved back to the Claiborne County, Tennessee area with intentions of making it a permanent home. He recognized that God had moved for him and had granted his request to return to the Claiborne County, Tennessee area where he began working in the legal arena. He was given an associate job by the late Attorney Benjamin S. Pressnell, in Tazewell, Tennessee in 2003. He was then admitted in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee in 2002-2003. After awhile, Tom found that he had a desire to start his own law practice.

In November 2004, his solo law practice was started and he began practicing out of his own office in Tazewell, Tennessee. There, he has acquired extensive trial court experience in the State trial courts of Claiborne, Union, Campbell, Knox, Grainger, Hancock, Jefferson, and Scott Counties, and in the State Appellate Courts, and in the Federal Court system. He has been admitted to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court since 2009.