Buffington Named Assistant Lottery Director
September 21, 2018CHARLESTON, W.Va. – West Virginia Lottery Director John Myers has named Douglas Buffington as the Lottery’s Assistant Director.
Buffington served as Acting Lottery Director since September 1st. He has also served the West Virginia Department of Revenue in top legal counsel roles across two administrations for more than four years. Beginning as General Counsel and Chief of Staff in October 2013, he progressed to the role of Managing Deputy Secretary in February 2017.
Acting as adviser to the Secretary of Revenue, Buffington implemented general policy directives throughout the department’s 10 subordinate agencies and provided direct oversight for the State Tax Department, Offices of the Insurance Commissioner, Lottery Commission, Alcohol Beverage and Control Administration, Office of Tax Appeals, and Athletic Commission. Additionally, he provided legal and administrative guidance for the State Budget Office, the Division of Financial Institutions, the Municipal Bond Commission, and the Racing Commission.
As Managing Deputy Secretary, Buffington also acted as liaison between the department and the Governor’s Office regarding complex agency and governmental issues, legislation, and administrative regulation. He works closely with the Office of the Attorney General on agency-related litigation and serves as Chief Privacy Officer and Chief Record Retention Officer for the agency.
Prior to joining the department, Buffington was an associate attorney for the legal firm Pullin, Fowler, Flanagan, Brown and Poe in Beckley for more than 4 years and a public defender in Raleigh County for nearly 10 years. During law school he served as a law clerk for the Division of Special Fund in Frankfort, Kentucky, focusing on Workers’ Compensation law, as well as a federal judicial internship with the Eastern District of Kentucky in Lexington focusing on civil and criminal law.
Buffington earned his law degree in 1999 from University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, and his Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Baylor University in Waco, Texas, in 1996. He has been a member of the Beckley Human Rights Commission and served on the Board of Directors for the Raleigh County Public Defenders.
