Managing Member, Jackson Kelly PLLC
By Kristen Uppercue
Growing up, Ellen Cappellanti’s father encouraged her to earn her keep and be financially independent. 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 difficult that first year was,” she says of law school. “Back then, your grade was typically 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 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 throughout 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 recognized 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 important part of my life,” she says. “I grew up in Morgantown and received my undergraduate and law degrees there. My education there was transformative.”
While she is very proud of the awards she has received, she considers her greatest 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.”
