Overview

Mark litigates and tries complex business disputes, concentrating on corporate, business tort, real estate and public law litigation. His in-depth focus includes consultant and accountant liability litigation, contract disputes, Uniform Commercial Code issues, trade secrets and non-competition covenants. Mark also works with clients to resolve land use, zoning and other issues involving local and state governments. He has particular expertise in alternative dispute resolution, including acting as a neutral in appropriate cases.

Mark also has extensive appellate experience, with two dozen appearances in the Ohio Supreme Court, and many more at the federal and state appellate courts. A number of those cases have involved important issues in municipal and state law.

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Experience

Mark regularly appears in state and federal courts in Ohio (including more than 20 appearances in front of the Ohio Supreme Court) and throughout the country on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants. His recent experience includes the following:

• Winning a declaratory judgment for a large public agency–after a three-week trial–validating its power to institute a major new program

• Winning one of the largest business-case jury verdicts in Ohio in a lawsuit for fraud by a developer in relocating a major tenant to an unsuitable site

• Obtaining a multimillion-dollar settlement for an industrial corporation damaged by the failure of a new enterprise computer system to perform as promised

• Recovering more than $30 million for the liquidation estate of a large Ohio insurance company, including $10 million from the company’s auditors, nearly $9 million from its corporate attorneys, and more than $4 million from former officers and directors

• Winning the first case in the Ohio Supreme Court establishing the right of Ohio municipalities to charge impact fees to developers to pay for infrastructure necessitated by new development.

• Establishing, by an Ohio Supreme Court ruling, the proper statute of limitations for claims brought against utilities by customers

• Settling a claim by a large public university for millions of dollars, paid by the supplier of faulty computer software to the university

• Negotiating multimillion-dollar settlements from the former auditors and from former officers and directors of a defunct surety bond company outside of Ohio

Recognition

• 1995-2021 – Selected for inclusion in the 1995-2021 editions of The Best Lawyers in America©.  Listed in the current edition for Commercial Litigation and Litigation-Municipal.
• 2020 – Named by Ohio Super Lawyers to its 2020 “Top 100” Ohio attorneys list and its 2020 “Top 50 Cleveland Area” attorneys list. These lists include those lawyers who ranked highest in the 2020 Ohio Super Lawyers nomination, research and blue ribbon review process.
• Listed in Chambers USA.
• AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rating by Martindale-Hubbell®.
• Who’s Who in America.
• Leading Lawyers by Cleveland’s Inside Business magazine.
• 2004 – 2020 – Selected to the Ohio Super Lawyers list. Areas of practice Business Litigation; State/Local/Municipal; Alternative Dispute Resolution.
• Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, Access to Justice Award.

Articles

• Nearly Half of All Walter | Haverfield Attorneys Selected for Inclusion in Best Lawyers®

Presentations

• Local Government Litigation Update. Northeast Ohio Law Director’s Association/Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, March 3, 2020
• Kent State Shootings, May 4, 1970, The Day the War Came Home and It’s Legal Aftermath. Cleveland-Marshall Law Alumni Association, October 18, 2019
• Arbitration: Best Practices for Using Your Trial Tools in a Different Setting. Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association, October 30, 2018

Associations

• Cleveland Chapter of the American Constitution Society, executive committee member

• Western Reserve Chorale, board member

• Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association

• Federal Bar Association

• Northeast Ohio Law Directors Association

• Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, member of pro bono committee