West Virginia Executive Summer 2017 | Page 110

Susan Snowden Counsel, Jackson Kelly PLLC Photo by TLC Photography. BY JEAN HARDIMAN. One of the finest things about West Virginians, in the eyes of Berke- ley County attorney Susan Snowden, is that they come to each other’s aid without fail. That is what she tries to do as counsel in the Martinsburg office of Jackson Kelly PLLC and as a resident in her lifelong Eastern Panhandle community. Having focused her career on the insurance defense and corporate areas of law, she’s taken very seriously her role of using her knowledge and experience to serve clients in their times of need, all the while spending her off hours volunteering with her church and 4-H and serving on boards that focus on everything from health care to business development to agriculture. The field of law was something Snowden decided to pursue during high school, after she participated in a youth-in-gov- ernment project at the West Virginia State Capitol. She earned a degree at Shepherd University in 1982 before graduating from the Ohio Northern University Claude W. Pettit College of Law in 1985. It was the one time as an adult that she’s lived away from her home state. “That was an excellent decision for me, as I had law classmates from all over the U.S., exposing me to a variety of ideas and social- ization,” she says. “However, I always knew I wanted to come back to the Mountain State and practice law in my hometown.” Snowden feels fortunate to have begun her career at Martin & Seibert, where she practiced until 2017, when she made the move to Jackson Kelly to offer a further depth of practice to benefit her clients. Her career has given her exposure to complex matters, including employment class actions, 110 WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE This is a career where you have the potential to leave an indelible mar