DRWV BOARD MEMBER

Ellen S. Cappellanti, Esq.

Managing Member, Jackson Kelly PLLC

DRWV Board Member

Ellen S. Cappellanti is the Firm’s Managing Member and practices with the Commercial Law Practice Group. She assists clients in a wide variety of commercial transaction, including financing, leasing, acquisition and real estate development projects. She also regularly represents debtors, creditors and trustees in business bankruptcies and out of court restructuring.

Ms. Cappellanti is the past chair of the Standing Bankruptcy Committee of the State Bar and is in The Best Lawyers in America® under the bankruptcy, corporate mergers and acquisitions and real estate designations. She is a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers.  She is recognized by Chambers USA, America’s Leading Business Lawyers as a preeminent Corporate/M&A lawyer. In the 2011 edition of Chambers USA, sources said Ms. Cappellanti’s “connections in the state make it easy for us to reach the right people.” She served as the President of the governing council of the West Virginia Law Institute and is a Master (Emeritus) of the Judge John A. Field, Jr. Inn of Court.

Ms. Cappellanti is committed to community service. Appointed by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin in 2007, she serves as a Member of the West Virginia University Board of Governors. She is the representative of the Board of Governors on the West Virginia United Health System Board. She serves on the Honorary Board of the Contemporary American Theater Festival, Inc. She is the Chairman of the Board of the Clay Center of the Arts and Sciences. She is the past Co‑Chair of Advantage Valley, Inc. and past President and Member of the Board of Directors of the Discover The Real West Virginia Foundation. She is also involved in economic development and promoting West Virginia. She has participated in four trade missions to the Far East with Senator John D. Rockefeller, IV, and in a 2007 trade mission to China with Governor Joe Manchin. Ms. Cappellanti also has been elected to serve on the Board of Directors for the Charleston, West Virginia, bank of Branch Banking and Trust Company.

Ms. Cappellanti graduated from West Virginia University in 1977 and in 1980, from the West Virginia University College of Law, where she was selected as a member of Order of the Coif and Order of the Barristers. While in law school, she was a member of the West Virginia University College of Law Moot Court Board and the National Moot Court team and served as Lead Articles Editor of the West Virginia Law Review.

Ms. Cappellanti is a past recipient of the YWCA of Charleston Women of Achievement Award and the WVU College of Law Women’s Law Caucus Distinguished Women in the Law Award.