Mark D. Shepard

Litigation

Mark focuses his practice in the areas of commercial, toxic tort, products liability and environmental litigation. He has represented clients as lead trial counsel in a variety of complex commercial litigation matters involving contract, trade secret, trade name disputes, securities fraud, common law fraud, antitrust and RICO claims. Mark also has significant experience in representing defendants in consumer and other class actions.

A sizeable portion of his environmental litigation practice has been devoted to defending clients in federal and state superfund litigation and permit appeals. Mark has used his broad experience in environmental cost recovery litigation to develop a specific emphasis on natural resource damage (NRD) claims by federal and state trustees.

Mark has maintained an active practice in toxic tort litigation involving alleged exposure to toxic substances in the air, water and/or soil. During his career, he also has frequently been retained to handle communications, insurance coverage and mining litigation. He also has substantial experience in products liability defense, particularly in the mining equipment industry. As a result of the nature of his litigation practice, Mark has participated in numerous forms of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) proceedings including commercial arbitration, mediation, mini-trials and early neutral evaluation. He has been retained regularly as a mediator for complex commercial, products liability, insurance coverage, securities and natural resources cases. Mark currently serves as a mediator, arbitrator and early neutral evaluator in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.

Mediation

With more than 20 years of experience, Mark is a trained mediator who has mediated thousands of cases across a wide range of areas, including commercial contracts, securities or broker dealer claims, products liability, professional liability, insurance coverage, personal injury, natural resources, environmental statutes, oil and gas disputes, closely-held business disputes, copyright, trademark, construction and real estate disputes. He has been appointed as a Special Discovery Master in the Western District of Pennsylvania and Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny on a number of occasions. Mark has also served as an AAA appointed or common law Arbitrator in approximately 20 commercial arbitrations. He is a certified mediator and early neutral evaluator in the Western District of Pennsylvania and a member of the Pennsylvania Council of Mediators. Currently, mediation, arbitrations and special discovery master appointments constitute approximately 70% of his practice.

Allegheny County Bar Association (Served as chair of the Civil Litigation Section in 2000-2001; Member of the Board of Governors from 2005-2011)

Pennsylvania Bar Association (Appointed to the Judicial Evaluation Commission in 2007 for a three-year term)

American Bar Association

Serves as a commercial litigation panel member for the American Arbitration Association® (AAA®)

Serves as a panel member for the National Arbitration and Mediation (NAM)

•Elected to membership in the Allegheny County Academy of Trial Lawyers in 2001 (Served as chairman of the Program Committee)

•For a number of years, coordinated the county-wide High School Mock Trial competition

Duke University

J.D.

1982

University of Notre Dame

B.A.

1979