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He graduated from UCLA in 1976 and obtained his J.D. in 1979 from the University of San Fernando Valley College of Law. While at UCLA, at the age of 22, Mark managed and produced rock-and-roll bands, including Van Halen. His days with Van Halen have been chronicled in Greg Renoff’s recent bestselling book, Van Halen Rising. After law school, Mark joined Louis DeWitt’s Century City based criminal defense trial firm where he began trying criminal jury trials.
By the middle 1980’s, Mark, who was now a partner with DeWitt, began focusing on complicated plaintiff’s personal injury cases, including catastrophic injury and wrongful death cases. As early as 1990, he received his first million dollar plus jury verdict ( $1.4 million for three amputated fingers) in a product liability industrial accident. Mark followed up with other numerous, successful multimillion dollar verdicts, including a $2.9 million verdict for a crushed foot from falling tree branch; a $3 million judgment against Mercury Insurance for bad faith insurance practices; $4.75 million against the Cal Trans after verdict for liability of a dangerous road design; 10 Million dollar verdict against Farmers Insurance for bad faith insurance practices; $19 million verdict for injuries in a freeway motor vehicle accident; $25 million verdict for injuries in a motor vehicle accident. In addition, Mark has gained for his clients many large money settlements including over $4.5 million for police misconduct over $40 million for toxic contamination, in addition to numerous other multimillion dollar settlement for general personal injury and wrongful death claims. Many of these verdicts and settlements have been against the biggest and most aggressive industry titans, such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corporation, Cooper Tire Co., Farmers Insurance Co., and Mercury Insurance Co. In 2016, Mark was also trial counsel in Barickman v Mercury Insurance Co, a significant 4th District Court of Appeal case that created important insurance bad faith law. Mark has now tried over 75 cases to verdict in both state and federal courts, including criminal cases.
1979
* Co-authored a Published Article on Bad Faith Insurance Practices in the Advocate
90% of Practice Devoted to Litigation
In 1992, Mark was featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes® with Ed Bradley in a case that exposed dangerous automobile car seats that were used by many manufacturers, in this case Mazda Motors The seat backs would collapse and catastrophically injure or kill the occupants during rear end accidents. That case helped to bring about more stringent automotive safety standards. Mark has also been extensively interviewed on many other news programs including those on ABC, NBC, CBS and Reason®. Many of these verdicts and settlements have been against the biggest and most aggressive industry titans, such as Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corporation, Cooper Tire Co., Farmers Insurance Co., and Mercury Insurance Co. In 2016, Mark was also trial counsel in Barickman v Mercury Insurance Co, a significant 4th District Court of Appeal case that created important insurance bad faith law. Mark has now tried over 75 cases to verdict in both state and federal courts, including criminal cases.
In 1992, Mark was featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes® with Ed Bradley in a case that exposed dangerous automobile car seats that were used by many manufacturers, in this case Mazda Motors The seat backs would collapse and catastrophically injure or kill the occupants during rear end accidents. That case helped to bring about more stringent automotive safety standards. Mark has also been extensively interviewed on many other news programs including those on ABC, NBC, CBS and Reason®. Mark is presently the firm’s managing partner. He has an A.V. rating from Martindale-Hubbell, is a member of the Consumer Attorneys Association of Los Angeles (CAALA), the Consumer Attorneys of California (CAOC), the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, the American Association for Justice, the Academy of Catastrophic Injury Attorneys, the National Association of Distinguished Counsel Nation’s Top One Percent, and the Top 100 Trial Lawyers. He is also an associate in the American Board of Trial Advocates, an invitation only, peer-recognized organization. In 2013 and 2015, Mark was a nominee for CAALA Trial Lawyer of the Year and in 2015, a nominee for CAOC Consumer Attorney of the Year. In 2014, Mark received one of the Top Ten Verdicts in Southern California, according to Verdict Search®, a national jury verdict research company. In that same year, Mark co-authored with his colleague, Carolyn Tan, an article on insurance bad faith practices in the Advocate, CAALA’s monthly magazine. Mark has been selected as a Southern California Super Lawyer in 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 and also has a perfect score of 10 on AVVO® , the consumer attorney rating site.
