About Michelle Willis

As a trusted legal advisor with comprehensive experience advising financial institutions and other highly regulated companies, Shelli Willis is recognized for her collaborative thought leadership in delivering creative legal and business solutions to clients in highly regulated industries.

Annette Michelle (Shelli) Willis has broad multidisciplinary experience counseling executive management teams, boards of directors and business leaders on corporate matters. She uses her deep understanding of the finance, risk management, compliance, regulatory and legal infrastructures of financial institutions and publicly traded companies to effectively identify legal, regulatory, compliance and reputational risks and deliver creative legal and business solutions that mitigate potential issues and support client growth strategies and business goals.

Shelli began her legal career at Troutman Pepper. She rejoined the firm in 2020 after serving for over six years as a deputy general counsel, assistant corporate secretary and senior vice president for SunTrust (now Truist), where she collaborated with executive management, boards of directors and senior business leaders to deliver creative solutions on a wide range of legal and business issues.

Throughout her career, Shelli has represented commercial lending institutions, including major regional and national banking institutions and life insurance companies, in the financing and management of commercial real estate, including construction, term, mezzanine and revolving loan facilities, loan syndications and participations, loan workouts, restructurings and refinancing, debtor-in-possession financing, foreclosures, and the leasing, management and sale of properties acquired through foreclosure. Shelli represents developers, purchasers, joint venture partners and associations in the acquisition, financing, development and sale of real property and has represented both landlords and tenants in office and retail leasing. She has extensive experience assisting clients in preparing all variety of commercial contracts and forms with a focus on building efficiencies.

Her comprehensive corporate experience includes corporate and board governance, SEC reporting, M&A and complex transactions, cyber and information security, procurement contracting, litigation management and other multidisciplinary areas of corporate counsel expertise.

Shelli is a member of Troutman Pepper’s Diversity & Inclusion and Innovation Committees. Shelli has experience integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) objectives and initiatives, including environmental social and governance (ESG) matters, diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, and Human Rights into corporate structure, mission and business planning and public disclosures. She is also skilled in documenting requirements for regulatory disclosures and approvals and coordinating internal and external legal teams in preparation of applications for submission to federal and state jurisdictions.