Biography: Business Crime Defence

Mark Topel is a partner at Kasowitz Benson Torres & Friedman LLP. He has extensive litigation experience in white-collar criminal defence and complex civil and corporate litigation. Mark has tried over 120 felony cases before juries during his career. He has represented numerous Fortune 500 companies and individual targets and witnesses in cases involving a wide range of substantive areas including fraud, government procurement, antitrust, securities, regulation of financial institutions, insurance, tax, health care, civil rights and public corruption.

For example, in 2006, Mark represented the former general counsel of McKesson Corp. in a widely publicised criminal trial stemming from a 1999 securities scandal that led to $9 billion in investor losses. Mark won an acquittal on conspiracy charges, as the jury deadlocked on the remaining counts (forcing a mistrial on those counts).

Mark is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers and has been recognised as one of the nation's outstanding white-collar trial lawyers by numerous publications including Chambers USA and Northern California Super Lawyers 2008.

Mark's court admissions include: US Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (1972); US Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit (1972); US Court of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit (1972); US District Court, Central District of California (1974); US District Court, Northern District of Texas (1980); and US District Court, Southern District of California (1983).

Mark received his JD from Boalt Hall School of Law in 1972, and his BA summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati in 1967.