Elena F. Mitchell

Elena's practice focuses on complex litigation matters involving a wide variety of business torts; commercial contract, guaranty, and mortgage loan disputes; estate litigation; and antitrust litigation. Elena regularly practices in state and federal court, and her clients include international and national manufacturers and retailers, banks and other financial institutions, commercial landlords and property management companies, and high-net-worth individuals.

Elena also frequently represents clients in internal corporate investigations and has experience advising companies, government entities, and nonprofits on diversity, equity, and inclusion-related initiatives and conducting related assessments and investigations. In addition, Elena routinely assists clients with financial regulatory and compliance issues. In 2017, Elena completed a three-month secondment at a U.S.-based global financial institution focusing on financial regulatory matters and, specifically, recovery planning.

Active in pro bono work, Elena supports the firm’s Human Trafficking Project and regularly handles expunction matters for the Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy. Additionally, she has handled cases for the International Refugee Assistance Project and the firm’s Domestic Violence Project. Elena also has litigated civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in federal court.

Representative Experience

Litigation

• Represent manufacturing companies in complex commercial disputes, particularly involving high-value supply agreements, equipment contracts, and strategic litigation

•  Represent global and national banks and financial institutions in various commercial litigation matters, including pre-litigation matters and state court actions involving allegations of lender liability and fraud

• Represent landlords in unconventional tenancy concerns and related litigation matters

• Represent high-net-worth clients in will and trust caveats, including ones involving competency and undue influence issues, and similar pre-litigation disputes

• Routinely respond to civil investigative and third-party litigation subpoenas

• Served as local counsel for a leading specialty food brand in a high-stakes matter to recover highly-customized manufacturing equipment from a third-party packager

• Represented a global property management company serving retail locations of a large national bank in a dispute involving interpretation of the terms of a complex master services agreement and related statements of work
• Represented a national retailer in state opioid litigation
• Represented a large, international bank in various class and opt-out actions asserting anti-competitive practices arising from alleged manipulation of foreign exchange markets
• Obtained dismissal of a False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case filed against a U.S.-based global financial institution in federal court
• Represented physicians and a physician staffing company in litigation involving numerous private causes of causes related to their alleged retaliatory termination

Investigations

• Routinely conducts internal investigations related to employment law matters, including allegations of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation, as well as sensitive, confidential, internal reviews for Fortune 100 companies and other organizations relating to DEI initiatives and impacts
• Conducted a racial equity audit of the nation’s largest private operator of correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities and thereafter published a report detailing the team’s conclusions and recommendations (publicly-available here: CoreCivic Racial Equity Audit Report)
• Conducted an internal investigation into whistleblower allegations related to advice provided by the legal department of a U.S.-based global financial institution
• Conducted two separate internal investigations on behalf of a U.S.-based global financial institution relating to alleged auditing irregularities

Advisory

• Advised a U.S.-based global financial institution on flood insurance matters
• Advised two, U.S.-based global financial institutions on recovery and resolution planning
• Advised a U.S.-based global financial institution on creating Comprehensive Capital Analysis and Review (CCAR) legal risk assessments

Notable

• Best Lawyers in America, Commercial Litigation "Ones to Watch," 2025-2026; Criminal Defense White-Collar, 2026
• Recipient of the Charlotte Business Journal’s 40 under 40 Award, 2025
• North Carolina Super Lawyers "Rising Star", Business Litigation, 2025
• Charlotte Business Journal Power 100 List, 2023
• Leader Under 40, Community Building Initiative Class 8
• Co-chair, Moore & Van Allen’s Young Professionals Committee
• Featured speaker at a CLE for the legal department of a U.S.-based global financial institution for two years in a row on the topic of attorney-client privilege and work product protection
• Completed a secondment in the legal department of a U.S.-based global financial institution focused on regulatory matters and, specifically, recovery planning
• North Carolina Pro Bono Honor Society, 2017-2018, 2022-2023

News

Insights

Affiliations

• American Bar Association
• Hispanic National Bar Association 
• North Carolina State Bar

• Women Lawyers of Charlotte (WLC), including serving on WLC’s Board of Directors from 2018 – 2021 as a Co-chair responsible for planning the organization’s annual “Fighting for Women with Fashion” event, which benefits victims of domestic violence and sexual assault in Charlotte and Mecklenburg County

• Mecklenburg County Bar
• Mecklenburg County Hispanic Latino Lawyers Bar
• Charlotte Gamecock Club
• UVA Club of Charlotte

Publications

• “What VC Fund Settlement Means For DEI Grant Programs," Law360, September 2024
• "What 2 Rulings On Standing Mean For DEI Litigation," Law360, June 2024
• "Supreme Court Denial in Virginia School Case Is a Diversity Win," Bloomberg Law, March 2024 
• “Attorneys Should Have An Ethical Duty To Advance DEI,” Law360, May 2023 
• “Racial Equity Audits: The New ESG Frontier”, Bloomberg Law , April 2022
• “Water Under the Bridge: Revised Interagency Flood Insurance Q&As to Replace Decade-Old Q&As”, MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog, May 2021.
• "New Treasury Department Regulations Modify Mandatory Filing Requirements for Critical Technology Businesses", MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog, June 2020
• "Treasury Department Publishes Interim Final Rule Implementing CFIUS Filing Fees", MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog, April 2020
• “Treasury Department Publishes Proposed Rule on CFIUS Filing Fees”, MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog, March 2020
• “New Treasury Department Regulations Expand CFIUS Authority”, MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog, February 2020
• “Parting the Waters of Uncertainty for Private Flood Insurance,”ABA Banking Journal’s Risk and Compliance Newsletter, July 2019
• “The Time Is Now to Prepare for Congressional Inquiries from a Democrat-Led House,” Westlaw Journal Bank & Lender Liability, March 2019
• When Someone Shows You Who They Are, Believe Them the First Time:* What a Blue Wave in the House Likely Means for Financial Institutions,"MVA White Collar Defense, Investigations, and Regulatory Advice Blog, November 2018
• "Transitioning Away from LIBOR: What Is Coming and What Can We Do Now?" Corporate Compliance Insights, May 2018