Jonathan A. Marcantel graduated from the College of Charleston, cum laude, with BAs in political science and history. Thereafter, Marcantel graduated cum laude from the University of South Carolina School of Law. While in law school, Marcantel worked for the Honorable Jean Hoefer Toal, Chief Justice of the South Carolina Supreme Court, and served as a research editor on the American Bar Association's Real Property, Probate & Trust Journal.

After law school, Marcantel clerked for the Honorable William L. Howard Sr., South Carolina Court of Appeals Judge. Thereafter, he was an associate attorney at Finkel & Altman, LLC, where he was statewide local counsel for both a major financial institution and an international software company. In 2006, Marcantel entered academia, first at the Charleston School of Law and now at Lincoln Memorial University School of Law.

Marcantel has served as an assistant editor for the Journal of the Legal Writing Institute, an adjunct professor of political science at the College of Charleston, a member of the South Carolina Bar's Ethics Advisory Committee, a member of the South Carolina Bar's Professional Responsibility Committee, a member of the South Carolina Bar's Resolution of Fee Disputes Board (appointed by the SC Bar President), an arbitrator for the Ninth Circuit Solicitor's Office, and an elected member of the South Carolina Bar House of Delegates.