I write, speak, teach, and consult on the global legal market. My perspective is drawn from in-depth, diverse experience during a forty-year career in the field. The first twenty-five years were spent as a practicing civil trial lawyer and the past fifteen have focused on the business of law and improving access to and delivery of legal services.
I am the CEO of Legal Mosaic, a legal business consultancy that provides strategic advice to corporate legal departments, law firms, legal service providers, legal networks, entrepreneurs, and law schools. I am frequently engaged as a keynote speaker and workshop conductor and have spoken and consulted throughout North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. I was recently appointed by the Singapore Academy of Law to serve as the inaugural “LIFTED Catalyst-in-Residence” to advance innovation in legal delivery and education in Singapore and the region.
I am passionate about modernizing legal education/training and bridging the gap between the Academy and the marketplace. I serve as Distinguished Fellow at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, having previously spent five years as a Distinguished Lecturer at Georgetown Law. I have guest-taught at Harvard Law School, University College London Faculty of Laws, Bucerius, and other leading global institutions.
My writing focuses on the global legal marketplace. I have authored three eBooks and am a regular contributor to Forbes and an inaugural member of the ALM Intelligence Fellows Program. My work was recently recognized by the American Bar Association as one of the fifty leading legal blogs in the world.
Please see the Legal Mosaic website for further details. You can also follow me on Twitter @legalmosaic. Speaking, workshops, teaching, and/or consulting inquiries should be directed to: markacohen@legalmosaic.com.
Trial Lawyer
- Assistant United States Attorney, Civil Division—won 2 DOJ awards for outstanding trial performance
- Tried 57 major civil cases during career
- Lead Counsel in 13 class action lawsuits and numerous MDL cases
- Represented Five Foreign Sovereign Nations including lead trial counsel in Panama litigation versus Manuel Noriega
- Extensive appellate experience including en banc arguments before 11th Circuit and numerous Federal and State Appellate Courts
- Extensive international/multi-border experience including lead counsel in landmark forum non conveniens cases
- Lead Counsel in numerous arbitrations and mediations, both domestic and international
Managing Partner at BigLaw
- Youngest partner at Finley Kumble
- Asked to serve on the Firm’s National Management Committee
Founder of National Boutique litigation firm
- Founder and Managing Partner of multi-city national litigation boutique firm
- Personally represented more than 60 F500 companies as well as 5 foreign sovereign nations
- Significant innovations: Flex time, fixed price billing, virtual law library, and strongly diverse law firm (all before new millennium)
Receiver
- Appointed Permanent Receiver of international aviation parts business by Hon. Richard Owen, U.S.D.C. S.D. N.Y.
- Served for 10 years and repatriated more than $100M
- Oversaw legal operations of company in 4 continents
Outside General Counsel
- Functioned as outside general counsel to 3 excess and surplus lines insurance companies
- Devised innovative outside counsel arrangements (fixed-price portfolio work; reduction of law firms; formulate outside counsel litigation guidelines)
Early adopter of legal technology
- Worked with client, AT&T to create integration between/among 3 offices
- Used T-1 line to create videoconferencing, virtual law library, centralized attendant, etc. (in 1992)
Early Mover in LPO
- Founder of Qualitas Legal Solutions, one of the first to conduct document review overseas utilizing IT and tapping into labor arbitrage
Clearspire
- Co-Founder of groundbreaking two-company law firm/legal service entity regarded as pioneer in law firm/legal delivery system evolution
- Written up in Economist, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Reuters, American Lawyer, and scores of other media sources.
- Co-Architect of Coral, an integrated, web-enabled IT platform
- Principal lawyer participant in architecture of this web-enabled, integrated IT platform
- Managing Director, Clearspire Law
Teaching/Practicum Experience
- Inaugural “LIFTED Catalyst-in-Residence” at the Singapore Academy of Law
- Northwestern Pritzker School of Law – Center for Practice Engagement and Innovation Distinguished Fellow
- Program Board member for the Master in Legal Business at The College of Law (Australia)
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Teaching Fellow at The College of Law in the subjects of:
- Innovation: The market-driven transformation of legal delivery and law’s emerging collaborative culture
- Entrepreneurship: The golden age of the legal entrepreneur – Law’s transition from profession to industry
- Georgetown University Law Center – Appointed Distinguished Lecturer at Georgetown University Law Center.
Devise and teach professional competency courses and provide guidance on career strategies and placement. - Frequent speaker/guest Professor at numerous domestic and international law. Consult with numerous law school deans about the state of the legal marketplace, curriculum change, and employment opportunities.
- Lecturer and advisor to Executive Director, Sheldon Krantz at the DC Affordable Law Firm (joint venture involving Georgetown Law Center, DLA, and Arent Fox to address the “access to justice” crisis).
- Advisor to Founder, Michelle DeStefano at Law Without Walls (University of Miami Law School)
Author
Mark is a prolific writer on the global legal marketplace. He has authored three books including: Essays on Legal Delivery, More Essays on Legal Delivery, and The Clearspire Story. He has published more than 200 articles in mainstream legal and business journals around the world. He has a regular column in Forbes after having similar stints at Bloomberg BigLaw Business and Law360. He is also an inaugural Fellow of the ALM Legal Intelligence Program and a frequent contributor to The American Lawyer as well as other ALM outlets. His work also appears regularly in The American Bar Journal, The Canadian Bar Journal, Legal Business World, among a long list of publications. His articles can be accessed via the search engine in the “Blog” section of this site. Mark’s writing has garnered a global following. He was honored by The American Bar Associations as one of the world’s 50 best legal blogs in its “Web 100.”
Speaking
Mark is a sought-after keynote speaker who has appeared globally before leading global corporate legal departments, law firms, legal networks, Bar Associations, law companies, and law schools. For a representative list of his speaking engagements, please refer here and here.
