Ellison officially retired from the practice of law on January 1, 2017. During his legal career, he served on the Board of Directors of the Charleston Legal Aid Society, on the Board of the Florence Crittenton Home, as an SCDHEC hearing officer, for 10 years as South Carolina Coastal Council’s hearing officer, on the Council on Coastal Futures, and was a certified Circuit Court mediator and adjunct professor teaching environmental law at USC law school and the Charleston School of Law.
Before his retirement, a representative sample of his clients included:
The SC Coastal Council
The SC Public Service Authority
The Beach Company
Debordieu Colony Association
Seabrook Island
Kiawah Island
Charleston County PRC
The Town of Sullivans Island
The Town of the Island of Palms
The SC Department of Transportation
The SC Department of Mental Health
The SC Department of Labor
The College of Charleston
Southcoast Bank
The Bank of North Carolina
Charleston City Marina Company
Newberry College Board Of Trustees
Buzzards Roost Marina
Mark has over 23 years of real estate investment experience. He has acted as a principal in over $1.1 billion of real estate transactions, has completed over $250 million of securities transactions and has participated as a broker in over $1.3 billion of transactions.
The majority of Mark’s career has been spent bringing European investors into US real estate investments. Together with these investors, Mark formed partnerships that purchased 28 properties that were classified as distressed assets. In addition to real estate investments, Mark managed several private accounts for high net worth investors. During the Period of 1990 – 1993, Mark and a team of professionals advised financial institutions during a difficult market. In particular, Mark and his partners were engaged by Bank of Nova Scotia to structure two large office workouts (Riverwood – $75 million and Ten Peachtree Place – $29 million). Mark and partners also structured and/or purchased an additional 6 properties from the RTC or lending institutions with aggregate value of approximately $32 million.
Mark earned a BS degree in Biology at Furman University. He attended Medical School at MUSC in Charleston, SC and earned a JD degree at Emory University School of Law. He is a member of the Georgia and South Carolina Bar associations. He has completed studies at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design (Executive Education) and has written numerous articles related to real estate finance. He is the author of “The Deal,” a fictional novel.