This month’s More Than A Lawyer nominee is helping to bring a taste of Italy to young and unpublished artists.
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When she’s not practicing law, Lia DiTrapano Fairless runs a full-service vacation villa at her family's ancestral home in Sezze Romano, located an hour south of Rome, Italy. The Italian/American companies, Villa DiTrapano https://www.villaditrapano.com/the-villa, consist of a vacation villa and the importation and sale of small batch Extra Virgin Olive Oil. The olives are harvested every November from the family's land and neighboring farms, then shipped to America from the port of Naples.
In March of 2021, Lia's younger brother and partner at Villa DiTrapano, Giancarlo DiTrapano, 47, died unexpectedly. Giancarlo was the founder and publisher of New York Tyrant Magazine, and later, Tyrant Books. That spring, Lia helped establish the Giancarlo DiTrapano Foundation for Literature and the Arts https://www.ditrapanofoundation.com/ to honor the memory of Giancarlo and to preserve his life’s work as an editor, publisher and patron of the arts. It was Giancarlo’s dream to create a community for writers and artists of all disciplines to develop new work in residency on the grounds of his family’s estate in Sezze Romano.
The following year the Foundation began hosting residencies, beginning with writers Giancarlo published or mentored, and artists he supported and encouraged. Eligibility is open to candidates from anywhere in the world, though residencies will be granted by-invitation only. The foundation’s focus is to further Giancarlo’s lifelong democratic approach to cultural production and access, especially for young and unpublished writers creating work outside of the mainstream.
Currently, Villa DiTrapano's vacation villa donates its space to the residents. However, funds are being raised to build studio apartments inside the 17th century Castelletto on the DiTrapano property. Lia is now the U.S. Ambassador to the foundation.
Lia has served on the board of Susan G. Komen https://www.komen.org/, Pollen 8 for Women in Recovery https://www.pollen8wv.org/ and West Virginia Women's Attorneys. She is currently a Human Rights advocate for women in recovery at Pollen 8, and President of the West Virginia Women's Attorneys https://wvwomenattorneys.org/.
Lia founded DiTrapano Law Firm, PC https://www.ditrapanolawfirm.com/ in Charleston, West Virginia, and Atlanta, Georgia in 2004. Since 2009, she has represented West Virginians in personal injury and employment claims. Lia resides in South Charleston with her husband, L.J. Fairless, Owner of Snodgrass Funeral Home and their daughter, Francesca. Their son, Benjamin, lives in Atlanta, Georgia. Lia was nominated by Monica Nassif Haddad.
Original source can be found here.