Mark Nelson joined his former colleague and longtime friend Tom Nolan at Virginia Wills, Trusts & Estates PLC in January, 2019.
Mark is a divinity school graduate, and an alumnus of the University of Virginia School of Law. After law school, he served as a judicial law clerk for Judge Ralph Nimmons of U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida and then returned to Charlottesville in 1994 to practice law. The primary focus of his practice is wills, trusts and estates, but he also has an extensive background in business, tax and franchise law. He is admitted to practice in Virginia and before the U.S. Tax Court.
Prior to law school, Mark worked in the business world for six years – three years in public accounting with Arthur Andersen, and three years in private accounting and business management. He spent one year living and working in Jerusalem, Israel as the Business Manager and Assistant Bureau Chief for an international news and television broadcasting company.
Mark is actively involved in his local church and in the Charlottesville-Albemarle community. He served as the Chairman of the Board of the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce and as a member of the Board of Directors of the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area. Mark is involved in the Albemarle County Rotary Club, having served as President, and now as a member of the Board of Directors for the Club’s Foundation.
Mark is also active in local and statewide organizations in the legal profession. He has served as an Officer of the Virginia Bar Association Tax Section, a member of the Board of Directors of the Charlottesville-Albemarle Bar Association and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Community Tax Law Project, Virginia’s only statewide low-income taxpayer clinic.
Mark has authored and co-authored articles on corporate liability protection and tax issues. He has lectured on choice of entity, business formation, partnership law, and ethics in CLE and CPE programs and in the local Chamber Business Academy program. He co-presented a program in August 2019 on “Essentials of Taxation” for Virginia CLE®, the educational arm of the Virginia Law Foundation. He has a Martindale-Hubbell Distinguished ℠ peer-review rating.
Martindale-Hubbell® is the facilitator of a peer review rating process. Ratings reflect the anonymous opinions of members of the bar and the judiciary. Martindale-Hubbell® Peer Review Ratings™ fall into two categories – legal ability and general ethical standards.