Mark D. Petersen has a broad-based mediation and litigation practice emphasizing complex securities issues, consumer fraud claims, construction issues, entertainment law, and general commercial litigation.

Petersen serves as a mediator for the Bar Association of San Francisco’s Early Settlement Program, the Contra Costa County EASE Program, and as a Judge Pro Tem in San Francisco for mediation of cases about to go to trial. In the past six years he has settled more than 200 cases as a mediator. Petersen has completed the American Arbitration Association’s Mediator Training, The Bar Association of San Francisco’s Advanced Mediator Training, the ABA Advanced Mediation and Advocacy Skills training, and the U.S. District Court Advanced Mediation Training Program.

Petersen has worked extensively on construction matters, successfully defending construction managers, designers, owners and contractors and subcontractors in numerous matters. He recently represented an international contractor related to construction of a $100 million chip manufacturing facility, and favorably resolved the case through mediation before any litigation had begun.

Petersen has also successfully represented plaintiffs and defendants in employment matters (including a professional football team) ranging from unfair trade practices to sexual harassment. He recently represented a large biotech company related to nucleic acid testing of blood, and he has defended officers and directors of biotech, financial and software companies in securities and shareholder lawsuits. Petersen also represented a record producer suing a major recording personality for royalties, and he defended a well-known recording artist in a lawsuit that received national media attention.

After receiving a B.S. from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1974, Petersen served as a nuclear engineer on submarines with the U.S. Navy until 1980. He obtained his J.D., cum laude, from Hastings College of the Law, University of California, 1983, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings International and Comparative Law Review.

Hourly Rate: $500