Tara P. Ellis

Tara Ellis is a corporate and transactional attorney whose practice spans corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, commercial real estate acquisitions and leases, and financing transactions. She represents privately held and publicly held companies, real estate developers, retailers, financial institutions and healthcare entities.

Regulatory work is also a substantial part of Tara’s practice. She has extensive experience with gaming and alcoholic beverage law, as well as affordable housing, public bidding and public records request laws. She routinely works with the Mississippi Gaming Commission and the Alcoholic Beverage Control Division of the Mississippi Department of Revenue on licensure and compliance issues. Her work with other state and local agencies includes helping clients obtain the licenses and permits needed to operate or acquire businesses.

Within the gaming industry, Tara represents casino operators and developers, gaming equipment manufacturers and distributors, commercial lenders and equity investors. Her alcoholic beverage work has involved casino, hotel and restaurant operators, as well as trade associations. These matters bring her transactional practice together with the regulatory requirements that can affect a business’s acquisition or operation.

Tara approaches her primarily transactional practice collaboratively, working with lawyers and non-lawyers inside and outside her firm to address challenges and move matters toward a shared goal.

• Assists franchisors and franchisee with franchise agreements.
• Provides assistances to lenders and borrowers in various types of financing arrangements.
• Represented the owners of a casino in the sale of their membership interests.
• Represented a publicly-traded corporation in its acquisition of the equity securities of two Mississippi casinos.
• Successfully defended a casino against a $1 million slot machine jackpot claim, proven to be a result of a malfunction.
• Represented a state housing finance agency in the implementation and administration of a foreclosure prevention program.    
• Represented a purchaser of a chain of restaurants holding Mississippi alcoholic beverage permits in licensing issues.  
• Represented a lender in the financing, through loan and grant programs, of approximately 40 affordable housing projects.             
• Represented a multi-state retailer in the implementation and review of various compliance and risk management programs.

• Tulane University Law School, J.D., 2003, cum laude
• University of Mississippi, B.A., 2000

• Mississippi, 2003

• The Best Lawyers in America^®
• Mid-South Super Lawyers, Rising Star
• PORTICO Magazine, Top 10 Lawyers in Jackson, Mississippi
• Mississippi Business Journal, Leadership in Law Award, 2017

• International Association of Gaming Advisors
• Mississippi Bar Association
• Executive Board of the Gaming Law Section
• Mississippi Women Lawyers Association, past board member