2019 AWARDS
Ellen Cappellanti
Managing Member, Jackson Kelly PLLC
I managed to combine a successful life with
a successful career. I am really proud of my
children, and being an attorney has given me
great satisfaction.”
Photo by Rick Lee Photography.
BY KRISTEN UPPERCUE. Growing up,
Ellen Cappellanti’s father encouraged her
to earn her keep and be financially inde-
pendent. This motivated her to explore
many different careers like travel agent,
mortician, oceanographer and physician.
Cappellanti, a native of Morgantown,
WV, decided to pursue a biology major
during her undergraduate studies at West
Virginia University (WVU). While there,
she worked at the Mountainlair Student
Union, where many of her coworkers were
enrolled at WVU College of Law. They
encouraged her to enroll as well, and she
graduated with a law degree in 1980.
“I remember how psychologically dif-
ficult that first year was,” she says of law
school. “Back then, your grade was typi-
cally based on one four-to-five-hour exam
that covered the whole semester, and I
had never been in that situation.” After
surviving that first year, she thrived in
the environment, falling in love with the
law and the practice of law.
Since earning her law degree, Cappellanti
has become a well-traveled business lawyer
and has practiced in a variety of fields,
including banking, commercial litigation,
bankruptcy, real estate development, leasing
Cappellanti and the other WVU Board of Governors
members with President Gordon Gee in 2014.
96
WEST VIRGINIA EXECUTIVE
and commercial lending. She has spent
her entire career at Jackson Kelly PLLC
and currently serves as the managing
member, making her responsible for all the
attorneys in the firm’s 11 offices through-
out the country.
“I care passionately about my firm and
the success of West Virginia, and I hope
some of the things I have learned over the
years—sometimes the hard way—will
improve our firm and the state,” she says.
Cappellanti also leads Jackson Kelly’s
commitment to supporting Legal Aid of
West Virginia, which offers civil legal aid
and advocacy services to many people
across the state.
“When I was a young lawyer, I used to
do bankruptcy screenings for people in
financial distress,” she says. “I met a lot
of really fine people who had tragedies
in their lives like serious illnesses or job
losses or just very bad luck. It really made
an impression on me. I realized there was
a serious problem in this country with
access to justice, and Legal Aid is trying
mightily to fight that problem.”
As part of her commitment to public
service, Cappellanti also contributes to
community organizations. She has worked
with the Discover the Real West Virginia
Foundation for almost 20 years and served
as a past chair of the YWCA of Charleston,
where she is now involved in an endeavor
to create an endowment for racial justice.
She has also served as the director of the
Clay Center for the Arts & Sciences for
more than 20 years.
Last year, Cappellanti joined the board
of Rea of Hope, Inc., an abstinence-based
residential program for female addicts.
She recently became a member of the
board of directors of Pallottine Health
Foundation of Huntington, which is a
new foundation funded by the sale of
St. Mary’s Medical Center to improve
health care in the region.
“I love my state and my profession,
and it only seems natural to give back
when you have received as much as I
have,” she says.
Cappellanti has been referred to as one
of West Virginia’s most esteemed and
well-connected business leaders. She has
been named a Super Lawyer and recog-
nized in “Best Lawyers in America,” and
she has been named in Chamber USA’s
“America’s Leading Lawyers for Business
Guide” for 13 years. She has also received
the YWCA Women of Achievement Award
and the WVU College of Law Justitia
Officium Award, the highest award given
by WVU College of Law. In 2018, she was
inducted into the WVU Order of Vandalia
for her service to the university.
“This award is especially significant
because WVU has been such an import-
ant part of my life,” she says. “I grew
up in Morgantown and received my un-
dergraduate and law degrees there. My
education there was transformative.”
While she is very proud of the awards
she has received, she considers her great-
est success to be finding the ability to
balance her work and home life with her
husband, Mark, with whom she has three
sons and two grandchildren.
“I managed to combine a successful life
with a successful career,” she says. “I am
really proud of my children, and being an
attorney has given me great satisfaction.”