Mark is the National Practice Group Leader of the Blakes Business Crimes, Investigations & Compliance group. He is widely regarded as one of the leading white-collar and investigations lawyers in Canada with a particularly strong anti-corruption practice. His practice focuses on white-collar crime defence, anti-corruption compliance and internal investigations.
Mark regularly advises large corporate clients on compliance with criminal and regulatory legislation and has defended clients on charges under a wide variety of criminal and regulatory statutes, including criminal, anti-corruption, competition, securities, environmental, and occupational health and safety.
A significant component of Mark's practice involves conducting independent investigations on sophisticated white-collar and anti-corruption matters. He also advises clients in responding to regulatory and criminal search warrants and investigations.
Mark regularly advises Canadian and multinational corporate clients on compliance with domestic and international anti-corruption legislation (including the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act (CFPOA)) and has conducted internal investigations and risk assessments on five continents for numerous multinational companies. He also assists clients with CFPOA/Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) due diligence during mergers and acquisitions.
Mark has played a key role on both of Canada's most significant CFPOA enforcement cases to date. He served as independent counsel to the board of directors through the internal investigation of Canada's largest CFPOA case to date. Mark was also appointed as the independent compliance monitor for SNC-Lavalin pursuant to the probation order imposed by the Quebec Court as part of its sentencing on charges of fraud in Libya. More recently, Mark was designated in Canada's first remediation agreement as independent compliance monitor in a separate monitorship of SNC-Lavilin.
On a pro bono basis, Mark has provided training to prosecutors and enforcement officials in Zimbabwe and expert testimony to the Canadian Senate during hearings to consider Canada's new remediation agreement legislation.
Mark has also served on the Independent Investigations Advisory Board for one of the world's largest mining companies, providing direction and oversight over all worldwide internal investigations.
Mark was appointed King's Counsel in 2022.