Mark McDonald practices in the areas of securities and other complex financial and business litigation. He has handled a wide range of matters before federal, state, and bankruptcy courts, both at the trial level and on appeal.

Mark has been litigating high stakes matters for more than 30 years. He has particular experience and expertise representing companies and their officers and directors in a wide range of securities matters, including securities class actions, shareholder derivative actions, SEC investigations, internal investigations, and FINRA arbitrations. In recent years, he has obtained dismissal of securities claims asserted against former directors of a bank holding company; persuaded a district court to dismiss a shareholder derivative action for failure to make demand on the corporation’s board of directors, and to dismiss a subsequent shareholder derivative action following refusal of demand by a special committee of the board of directors; and obtained a defense verdict and an award of full attorney’s fees on behalf of an investment advisory firm that allegedly misrepresented the nature of investments sold to a national bank.

Mark regularly represents corporations and their officers and directors in shareholder class actions arising out of corporate mergers. Mark has conducted independent investigations, including representation of a special litigation committee investigating a potential $1 billion claim against the officers and directors of a major retailer, a committee created to evaluate a going private proposal by inside directors, and a special committee created to evaluate claims asserted in shareholder demand letters.

Mark also regularly handles class action litigation in connection with consumer, as well as investor, claims. Over the course of his career, Mark has represented clients in connection with antitrust litigation, Lanham Act false advertising claims, trade secret claims, RICO litigation, employment claims, anti-SLAPP litigation, and numerous commercial claims based on contract, fraud and unfair competition.

Mark is an experienced trial lawyer, having tried numerous cases in federal and state courts and in arbitration.

Mark maintains an active commitment to pro bono work. After 11 years of litigation, he persuaded a federal court to grant a habeas petition and release a client who had been sentenced to life imprisonment. For the past 15 years, he has been representing a client on death row in Mississippi.