Ellen Morrison Townsend is a partner with the firm and practices in the real estate, civil litigation, and general corporate areas. She has broad experience in trial and appellate matters involving real estate and commercial litigation as well as expertise with general business matters. She devotes a substantial part of her law practice to defending businesses in state and federal courts across Indiana, as well as with the Indiana Attorney General, the Indiana Real Estate Commission, the Department of Insurance, and many other state and federal regulatory agencies. She has represented clients in connection with permitting, enforcement and other common issues arising in real estate development work, including zoning and other land use matters. She regularly represents real estate brokers, agents, principal brokers, appraisers and other real estate professionals in connection with all aspects of agency law, litigation, administrative claims, risk management, licensing, and dispute resolution strategies.

Ellen is a 1997 cum laude graduate of the Indiana University-Bloomington School of Law, where she was an Articles Editor for the Indiana Law Journal and a member of the National Moot Court traveling team. She graduated with honors from DePauw University in 1994 and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. After spending several years in practice with a large Indianapolis law firm, she joined Hackman Hulett & Cracraft, LLP in 1999. She volunteers for a number of charitable and community based organizations, including service on the Board of Directors and various task forces and committees for the Indianapolis Bar Association, as the Town Attorney for the Town of Williams Creek, on the Indiana State Bar Association's Client Financial Assistance Fund and House of Delegates, through St. Luke's Methodist Church, and with Park Tudor school, DePauw University, and the IU School of Law. Ellen is a member of the American, Indiana, Indianapolis, and Seventh Circuit Bar Associations. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. District Courts of Northern and Southern Indiana. Ellen has been selected as a Distinguished Fellow of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation and has been named a Super Lawyer Rising Star in the real estate practice area, an honor given to the top 2½ percent of practicing lawyers under the age of 40 in Indiana.