After practicing law for nearly 20 years in New Jersey and New York, Melissa “Missy” Luce returned to West Virginia to join Stuart Calwell’s firm, The Calwell Practice, LC. After serving as Managing Attorney for several years, in January 2019, Calwell ultimately joined together with Luce and another colleague, Dante’ diTrapano, as partners in rebranding the firm to Calwell Luce diTrapano PLLC to solidify its long-term growth. And Missy continues in her role as Managing Partner.
Before moving to New Jersey early in her career, Melissa (Missy) Luce spent the first six years of her practice of law in Charleston for Di Trapano & Jackson. Prior to returning to West Virginia, Missy spent many years handling medical malpractice and general personal injury litigation cases for the New Jersey law firm of Stephen S. Weinstein, PA. Her current practice continues to focus on medical malpractice, birth injury/trauma, pharmaceutical litigation, product liability, wrongful death, and personal injury litigation.
Missy graduated on the Dean’s List from Davis & Elkins College in 1983, magna cum laude, including a semester of study abroad at Oxford University, and received her Juris Doctor from West Virginia University College of Law in 1986 where she was honored as the Outstanding Graduate. Missy is licensed to practice law in state and federal courts in West Virginia, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. As a result of her extensive trial and appellate work during her time in New Jersey, Missy was recognized by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a Certified Civil Trial Attorney, a distinction earned by only 1% of the approximately 100,000 attorneys in the state. Missy is AV Preeminent® Peer Rated, an honor bestowed by Martindale-Hubbell® for achieving the highest level of professional excellence for her legal knowledge and experience, analytical capability, judgment, communications, and ethical standards. Every year since 2020, she has been selected to the West Virginia Super Lawyers list, a peer-nominated distinction held by no more than 5% of a state’s lawyers. Missy also received the prestigious honor of being selected by the West Virginia Bar Foundation as a 2020 Fellow; only 375 lawyers and judges have been inducted as Fellows since 1999 from more than 6,000 working in West Virginia.
Missy enjoys contributing to various programs in our community, including the Special Olympics and Project Hope, and she has volunteered as a youth basketball coach for the YMCA. In 1982, she participated in mission work for Project Serve in the Dominican Republic. In 1985, she was selected to work as an intern for former WV Senator John D. Rockefeller, IV. While in New Jersey, she served as counsel to the Morris County Democratic Committee from 2002 until she returned to West Virginia in 2008 and was a member of the Visiting Nurses Association of Northern New Jersey’s Board of Trustees from 2001 until 2008. Following the September 11, 2001, tragedy, she served as a volunteer attorney for Trial Lawyers Care, providing free legal representation to victims and their families. Missy served as a member of the Board of Trustees of her alma mater Davis & Elkins College from 1987 to 1998 and from 2003 to 2012. Born in Fayetteville, West Virginia, she resides in Charleston and is an avid outdoors enthusiast, having formerly been a whitewater guide on the world-renowned New River. She takes particular delight in having bungee jumped, skydived, and hang-glided in many different countries, although she is now retired from such ventures!
