Judge Ellis began his career with Hunton & Williams, from 1969-1987. He is currently a federal trial judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, and is a Member of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, and a Member of the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure. Judge Ellis was a Naval Aviator from 1961-1966, and received a Knox Fellowship from Harvard University (1969-70), and received a Diploma of Law from Magdalen College, Oxford University, in 1970. He has been a Lecturer in the Georgetown University Law School Public Policy Program, a Lecturer in Law at the College of William and Mary, and from 1984-2002 served as a Member of the Advisory Council to the Department of Astrophysics at Princeton University.