Ellen B. Koopman has made it her mission to help elected officials achieve the vision they have for their communities.

As a former President of West Chester Borough Council, she knows what it’s like to be in the shoes of her municipal clients, including those embarking on a career in public service. She draws on her professional experience as both a public servant — and an attorney representing public servants — to assist municipal clients throughout Chester County with identifying their ultimate goals and creating a strategy to achieve them.

Ellen has served as a municipal solicitor to a multitude of elected officials, advising townships and planning commissions on scope of authority, drafting ordinances and resolutions and representing municipalities in land use and zoning matters in the Court of Common Pleas. As solicitor for the Department of Children, Youth and Families in Chester County, she represented the agency in dependency and other matters in the Court of Common Pleas and defended indications of child abuse before the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals.

Ellen began her career clerking in the Court of Common Pleas in Philadelphia for Major Trials in the Criminal Division. She then served more than a decade as Assistant Public Defender in the Chester County Public Defender’s office, engaging in more than 20 trials including nine felony jury trials. Clients appreciate Ellen’s depth of experience litigating pre- and post-trial motions, misdemeanor and felony jury and non-jury trials, as well as drafting written motions, arguing positions in court and advocating for clients in sentencing proceedings. She has briefed and argued appeals before the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

Ellen earned her Juris Doctor at Temple University Beasley School of Law and her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. A member of the Chester County Bar Association, Ellen has served on the Grants Allocation Committee and the Education Committee for the Chester County Fund for Women and Girls. She resides in Berwyn, PA with her husband and two children and enjoys hiking, yoga, music and cooking.