Mark is a Partner at Lagerlof, LLP specializing in litigation and appellate. 

Mark has represented financial institutions, businesses and entrepreneurs in a wide variety of litigation for over 40 years. His business litigation practice has included real property purchases and financing, investment fraud, import/export transactions and partnership disputes. Mark’s banking practice has included consumer class actions, lender liability disputes, negotiable instruments cases, and commercial lending matters.  

He and his team have also defended thousands of state and federal lender liability cases throughout California and the Pacific Northwest. One of those cases resulted in a precedent setting decision from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that national banks for purposes of federal court jurisdiction are citizens only of the state where they have designated their main office.  

Mark enjoys fly fishing, golf, tennis, and spending time with family.  Devoted to community service, Mark has served as a mayor and councilman for a nearby city as well as a trustee of three school boards.

Notable cases include:

• In a proposed class action against a national bank, plaintiffs claimed the bank improperly influenced a regional cost of funds index.  After Mark and his team substituted in late in the case, the District Court  granted the bank’s motion for summary judgment shortly before trial. 
• In another proposed class action against a national bank, plaintiffs alleged improper changes to a proprietary cost of savings index.  Mark and his team achieved a dismissal with prejudice through motion practice.  Later, the San Francisco Superior Court granted the bank’s fee motion.  
• Class plaintiffs alleged a national bank improperly handled loan escrow accounts.  After one round of pleadings motions, the District Court granted the bank’s motion to dismiss the case with prejudice.  
• A dispute over the sale and financing of a Southern California office building.  Mark achieved a dismissal of the lender with prejudice, followed by an unpublished opinion from the Court of Appeals that upheld the trial court’s decision.  
• A dispute over the financing of a Texas hotel, resulting in an order granting the lender’s summary judgment motion as well as a subsequent fee motion.  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld both awards.  
• Dozens of workouts for troubled real estate, business and trade finance assets.  
• Prevailing at trial over a contract to exchange real property in Iran for property in Orange County.
• Successfully defending an importer sued by a freight forwarder over disputed shipments from China.  The court granted the importer’s summary judgment motion and later granted the importer’s motion for attorney’s fees against the freight forwarder.  The decision was upheld in an unpublished opinion issued by the Second District Court of Appeal.