Mark Schoeller has experience in a broad range of commercial litigation and business matters, including contract disputes; unfair trade practices; antitrust claims and compliance; joint ventures and mergers; shareholder, dissenters’ rights, and securities claims; director and officer liability; consumer fraud; franchising and business opportunity issues; restrictive covenants; intellectual property; insurance claims and coverage; False Claims Act and qui tam actions; and class actions. He has practiced at all levels of state and federal courts, as well as in administrative matters, private arbitrations, and government investigations.
Education
Recognitions
AV® Preeminent™ Peer Review Rated by Martindale-Hubbell (View methodology. No aspect of this advertisement has been approved by the Supreme Court of New Jersey.)
Certification in trial practice from the International Association of Defense Counsel
State Bar Licenses
Court Admissions
- Member of multi-firm team representing proposed national classes of child sex trafficking victims against world’s two largest online pornography websites in connection with claims for statutory damages and injunctive relief under Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (“TVPRA”) and related federal statutes.
- Represented shareholders in an action against a corporation, and its directors and officers, alleging breach of fiduciary duty and violation of the shareholders’ dissenters’ rights arising from the sale of the corporation’s assets.
- Represented the relator in a federal qui tam action involving federal anti-kickback and self-referral statutory claims against a major Pennsylvania healthcare system.
- Defended a regional propane distributor against claims by competitors alleging antitrust violations, discriminatory pricing, unfair competition, and various business torts.
- Represented investment companies in an action against the operators and managers of a hedge fund for mismanagement, breach of fiduciary duty, and fraud.
- Tried and won jury verdicts for franchisee plaintiffs in multiple cases alleging breach of restrictive covenants, unfair trade practices, and misrepresentation against a major U.S. franchising company.
- Secured defense verdict for company owners against claims by a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm involving a private equity firm’s failed acquisition of the defendants’ company.
- Represented a condominium association in a quiet title action against mortgage lenders/holders, and successfully had the court remove the security interests on individual condominium units to facilitate the sale of the condominium property to a developer after the property had been condemned by the local municipality.
Matters completed prior to joining Clark Hill:
- Defended an international manufacturing company in a class action against claims alleging violations of a state anti-fraud and consumer protection statute.
- Represented the franchisee plaintiffs in a class action resulting in a $384 million jury verdict (which was settled on appeal) against the franchise company and its British parent corporation.
- Secured dismissal of antitrust claims alleging an international price fixing conspiracy in the market for isostatic graphite rods on behalf of a Japanese manufacturing corporation.
- Represented the taxpayer plaintiffs in a class action involving claims of illegal spot reassessments against a township and school district in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
- Defended a private label manufacturer of paper products in a patent infringement action brought by a Fortune 100 consumer products company.