Mark is a labor and employment lawyer who handles both union and non-union matters for employers across the country. He counsels human resource professionals and in-house counsel in complying with the myriad federal/state employment laws to provide creative, practical and cost-effective solutions to employment issues and problems.

Mark concentrates in wage-hour law. He has extensive wage-hour experience and has represented more than 200 clients before the United States and many state Departments of Labor on misclassification (i.e. exemption), working time, child labor and other issues. He has deep experience in construction wage-hour law, where he represents construction contractors and sub-contractors in Department of Labor prevailing wage inspections, audits and debarment proceedings.

Mark publishes a wage-hour blog to provide the latest information and his observations on new developments in wage-hour law, such as class actions, exemption/misclassification and working time issues. View Blog 

He has defended a number of individual plaintiff and class overtime actions brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act and various state laws. Some of his representative matters include:

• A case of first impression, UTU, Local 1759 v. ONE Bus Company, 111 F.Supp.2d 514 (D.N.J. 2000), in which he successfully relied upon a single United States Department of Labor Opinion Letter to defeat a class action in which the agreed-upon damages were $750,000.
• In Moeck v. Gray Supply Company, another class action, he defeated a motion for conditional class certification and succeeded in having the action dismissed via summary judgment, an uncommon occurrence at such an early stage in a class action.
• In Kavanaugh v. Grand Union, 192 F.3d 269 (2d Cir. 1999), the Second Circuit agreed with his argument that travel time of four to six hours was “ordinary” home-to-work commutation and therefore non-compensable.
• Where the New Jersey Department of Labor made an preliminary overtime assessment of more than $400,000, he was able, in a single meeting with Department officials, to secure complete rescission of the overtime assessment and settle the case for a nominal record keeping penalty.

Mark has concentrated on the high profile, large-dollar exposure issue of exemption misclassification affecting the financial services and banking industries. He has presented at national conferences, addressed these issues in his wage-hour blog and has defended financial services employers in DOL audits.

Mark also has a strong background in traditional labor law. He has acted as Chief Spokesperson at numerous labor negotiations. He has arbitrated numerous cases involving both wrongful discharge and contract interpretation claims. He has defended employers in numerous NLRB proceedings, representational and unfair labor practice. He has also litigated several non-compete/restrictive covenant cases (on both the plaintiff and defendant side) as well as employment discrimination cases in federal and state courts.

Mark is a frequent guest speaker on wage-hour and employment law issues and has appeared on local and national television programs commenting on these matters. He authored a weekly column on labor and employment issues entitled "Making the Law Work."

Some of his representative appearances include:

• To present on recent wage-hour developments at the “Hot Legal Topics” seminar sponsored by the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (October 2009).
• Presentation on child labor issues to the statewide conference of the New Jersey Amusement Employers Association (Atlantic City, March 2009).
• Presentations at statewide conferences of New Jersey Payroll Association on new FLSA exemption regulations and current developments in New Jersey wage-hour law (May 2003, May 2004).
• Presentation at national conference of Mortgage Bankers Association on exemption and misclassification issues in the financial services industry (Washington, DC, June 2001).
• Presentation of Wage and Hour Seminar of the New Jersey Department of Labor & Workforce Development and the Essex County Employer Council (Roseland, NJ, May 15, 2008).