Charlotte R. Lane was appointed to the Public Service Commission of West Virginia and named Chairman on July 1, 2019. She previously served on the Commission from 1985-1989 and 1997-2003, holding the Chairman position from 1997-2001. In addition to her extensive work on the Commission, Charlotte has had a long and distinguished career in public service. She was elected to three terms in the West Virginia House of Delegates (1979-1980, 1991-1992, and 2017-2018) and served on the U.S. International Trade Commission from 2003-2011, having been appointed by President George W. Bush.
A seasoned attorney, Charlotte has practiced law in State and Federal Courts in West Virginia, and she is admitted to practice before the Third and Fourth Circuit Courts of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States.
Throughout her career, Charlotte has held numerous leadership positions, including President of the West Virginia Bar Association, the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners (MACRUC), and the Charleston Rotary Club. She has also served on the Boards of Directors for the Rotary Foundation of Washington, D.C., the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC), the Charleston Chamber of Commerce, and the West Virginia State Bar Board of Governors. Additionally, she has been a member of the West Virginia University College of Law Visiting Committee.
Charlotte graduated from Marshall University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Political Science and earned her Doctorate of Jurisprudence from the West Virginia University College of Law. She has been honored with several prestigious awards, including the Justitia Officium Award from the WVU College of Law and the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Marshall University. She is also a Fellow of both the American Bar Foundation and the West Virginia Bar Foundation. Recently, she was elected to the Board of Governors of the West Virginia State Bar, representing Kanawha County.
Charlotte currently resides in Charleston. Her daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren live in South Carolina.
