Ellis Levin and his wife Kay lives in Edgewater and have two adult children,  Hallie and Douglas.

Ellis was born in Chicago and raised in Skokie. He attended Evanston Township High School and then graduated from Evanston Township High School and  the University of Chicago.

After working in Washington DC for a Maryland Senator and a New York Congressman and for the U.S. Department of  Housing and Urban Development, Ellis returned to Chicago and earned his law degree at Northwestern University Law School.

Ellis was an Assistant State's Attorney from 1973 to 1977.  He prosecuted  a wide variety of criminal and civil cases and founded the division that investigates public utilities issues.

Ellis subsequently was involved  in   a number of  successful class actions in federal and state court including one involving  special education students, one involving insurance company payment for psychiatric hospitalization of adolescents, one involving  a  public utility charging  customers for light bulb service they did not request. In addition Levin brought the first successful challenge to a major telephone rate increase before the Illinois Supreme Court.

Ellis served eight terms as an Illinois State Representative beginning in 1977, representing the north lake front of Chicago.  Over his sixteen years in Springfield, he chaired the House Revenue Committee and the House Public Utilities committee. He successfully authored an average of 18 laws a year. Many of these laws are the basic legal protections which today protect the rights of the LGBT community, women and children, religious and ethnic minorities and seniors.

Since he left politics, Ellis has had a successful practice  focusing on real estate law with a specific emphasis on representing condominium s and cooperatives.   He also authored an annual annotation on Illinois Condominium Law, which has been relied upon as authoritative by the Illinois Appellate Courts and the Illinois Supreme Court.