After law school, Mark served a one-year clerkship with a federal appeals judge on the east coast. From there, he moved to Minnesota and began practicing law with the large Minneapolis-based firm of Faegre & Benson, where he became partner in 2002. During his 18 years there, he gained valuable experience handling complex litigation such as class actions and litigation with dozens of plaintiffs and multiple defendants. Mark opened his own firm in 2013.
Mark has handled one-hour trials and 5 ½-week trials (twice!), bench (judge) trials and jury trials, trials in Minnesota and trials in Arkansas. He has litigated cases in more than 25 states, and the majority of his defense matters have resulted in dismissal at no liability cost to the client.
In 2006, the national legal publication Lawdragon recognized Mark as one of 500 “new stars” across the country. At the local level, he was recognized in 2001 as one of the “Rising Stars” in the Minnesota legal community.
Mark has performed extensive pro bono work. In 2013, he was a member of a team of lawyers who conducted meetings and interviews in Morocco on behalf of The Advocates for Human Rights to identify opportunities to support Moroccan human rights and civil service organizations. In 2006, working with the nonprofit Appleseed organization, Mark led a team of lawyers that visited San Antonio to document the assimilation of people who settled in that city after being displaced from New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina. Mark also volunteers regularly at the Hennepin County Housing Court (through the Volunteer Lawyers Network) to help low-income faced with possible eviction from their homes. Also in the housing area, Mark represented a neighborhood organization in a successful attempt to wrest control of a troubled inner-city apartment building from the landlord.
Mark enjoys spending time with this three sons and biking and walking around the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes and through Hyland Park in Bloomington.
Representative Experience
- Mark negotiated a $695,000 settlement for a dairy farm in southwest Minnesota in 2021 in a lawsuit in which the farm had been provided with feed containing toxic levels of a feed additive.
- In early 2021, Mark obtained partial summary judgment for a manufacturing company, barring the company’s former sales representative from recovering gross commissions for more than 180 days under Minnesota’s Termination of Sales Representatives Act.
- From 2014-2019, Mark defended a financial services company against three lawsuits brought by subsequent holders of mortgage loans. All three matters were settled on terms advantageous to the client.
- In 2017 and 2018, Mark represented a manufacturing company in litigation in Illinois concerning a failed joint venture, and negotiated a favorable buyout of the former partner.
- Mark successfully defended a putative national class action brought by 40 named plaintiffs on behalf of over 12,000 potential class members from 2006 through 2012. Plaintiffs alleged that the client’s dairy feed contained inappropriate ingredients, causing damages in excess of $1 billion class-wide. In late 2012, the federal district court granted final approval of the class settlement.
- In late 2012, Mark co-chaired an arbitration involving a dispute concerning the pricing of livestock contracts. The arbitrator awarded the client $8.8 million and the arbitration result significantly improved the client’s position under the parties’ contracts going forward.
- In the fall of 2010, Mark was part of a team that tried a 5 ½-week spray drift case in Arkansas state court to a defense verdict. The jury rejected the claims of eight local cotton farmers, with more than 12,000 acres of allegedly injured cotton, that spray drift from defendants’ 2,4-D products caused $4 million in yield loss and other related damages. 55 other plaintiffs making similar allegations settled their claims shortly thereafter.
- Mark litigated a multi-state class action in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa in 2009 in which plaintiff alleged fraud in connection with the sale of a crop nutrient product. The case settled for cost of defense at mediation.
- Mark first-chaired a complex, 5½-week dairy production case involving issues of cattle genetics and dairy health and nutrition.
- Mark served as lead defense counsel in crop damage litigation in Florida, comprising 15 separate cases. After almost three years of litigation, the matter settled shortly after Mark helped the client obtain favorable rulings from the court on various pretrial motions.
Published Articles
- Co-editor, Defending Pesticides in Litigation
Thomson West, 2003-08 - Why ‘Least Cost’ is the ‘Best Value’
Feed & Grain, October 2012 - Effects of Siewert v. Northern States Power
Law 360, March 23, 2011 - Diluting Damaged Grain: A Blend of Legal Issues?
Feed & Grain, June/July 2010 - Regulatory Changes Have Implications for Animal Feed Industry
Feedstuffs, May 26, 2008