Mark Williamson is a partner and co-chair of Alston & Bird's Wealth Planning Group.  He is a Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel and practices in the areas of estate planning and federal taxation.  

He practiced with the Milwaukee law firm of Foley & Lardner before joining Alston & Bird and has been an adjunct professor of law at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and Georgia State University in Atlanta.  Mr. Williamson was on the faculties of the 1997, 1999 and 2007 Estate Planning Institutes in Athens, Georgia, and the 1997, 2000, 2007 and 2008 Fiduciary Law Institutes in St. Simons, Georgia.  He received the Estates and Trusts Magazine 1997 "Best Young Author Award" for a series of articles he co-authored with Professor Jeffrey Pennell of Emory University, and is listed as one of the "Best Lawyers in America" and as a Georgia "Super Lawyer."  He has also chaired the Fiduciary Law Section of the State Bar of Georgia, the Estate Planning and Probate Section of the Atlanta Bar, and the Atlanta Estate Planning Council.

Mr. Williamson received his B.M., cum laude, in music from Louisiana State University in 1981 and his M.M. in music from the University of North Texas in 1983.  He also studied at the doctorate level at Louisiana State University and the Catholic University of America, and he was a member of the United States Air Force Band in Washington, D.C. from 1984 to 1988.  He received his J.D. in 1991 from the Florida State University College of Law, where he graduated with highest honors, was made a member of the Order of the Coif, and served as executive editor of the Law Review.