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Biography of Mark Johnson
LEGAL EXPERIENCE
2008-Present:Mark A. Johnson, PC. Emphasizing civil and commercial practice, including litigation and transactions.
2003-2008:
Corporate Holdings, LLC (“Holdings”), General Counsel, and Williams Realty Advisors, LLC (“Advisors”), Legal Counsel. Atlanta, Georgia. Holdings managed a high net worth individual’s investments, international transactions and philanthropy. Advisors managed real estate development and acquisition funds with $3 billion in assets. Responsibilities included entity formation and operation, real estate acquisition and development, government approvals, title issues, coordination with outside transactional and litigation counsel, documents drafting, coordination among entities, due diligence and fund investment analysis, investor and lender relations, maritime, and personnel issues.
2001-2003:
Mark A. Johnson, P.C. Marietta, Georgia
1980-2001:
Dupree, Johnson, Poole & King Marietta, Georgia Transactional and commercial practice, entity formation and operation, commercial litigation, condemnation, licensing and governmental approvals, construction, development, zoning and land use, environmental, intellectual property, appellate practice, estate planning, wills, trusts, probate, and reproductive law.
EDUCATION
Mediation Training:Henning Mediation and Arbitration Service, Civil Mediation Training, 2008
Neutral Registration, Georgia Office of Dispute Resolution, No. 5984
LLM (Taxation):
Emory University School of Law, 1987
MBA (Finance):
University of Georgia School of Business, 1980.
Sigma Iota Epsilon Business Honorary
JD:
University of Georgia School of Law, 1979
BA (Journalism):
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1976
Phi Beta Kappa
Kappa Tau Alpha Journalism Honorary
NCAA Division 1 Soccer
Atlantic Coast Conference Honor Roll, 1974 and 1975
Beta Theta Pi
PROFESSIONAL AND COMMUNITY
- Martindale Hubbell AV Peer Review Rating
- Georgia Super Lawyer, James Magazine/Insider Advantage
- Chair of Communications Committee, Business Law and Litigation Section, Cobb County Bar Association, 2008-2009
- Leadership Cobb, 1992
- Coverdell Leadership Institute, 1999
- Hospital Authority of Cobb County, 1995 to 2000
- Wellstar Regional Health Board, 1995 to 2001
- Cobb County Ordinance Review Committee, 1993 to 1995
- Marietta Metro Rotary, 1984 to present; Paul Harris Fellow
- Georgia Ducks Unlimited Area Chairman of the Year, 1988
- Georgia Bar, 1979 to present
- Georgia Younger Lawyer's Continuing Legal Education Bridge the Gap Committee, 1983 to 1985
REPRESENTATIVE WORK PRODUCT
Lawyer for 440 acre mixed use development, from
acquisition, planning, zoning, permitting, subdivision, environmental, archeological, financing, through architectural control stages over 7 year period. Public/private elements included loop roads, road bed and right-of-way swaps, parks and school dedication.
Lawyer for co-composting company with first generation technology in successful bid for municipal franchise to process 300 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) and 150 tons of sewage waste daily into usable compost product. Duties included preparing and submitting Request for Proposal, lobbying public officials and professional staff, negotiating and drafting siting and 20 year operating agreement, interfacing with municipal bond counsel, securing environmental and land use permits, obtaining state and federal permits to market compost product, facilitating delivery of MSW with waste companies and independent haulers, securing process guaranty through Siemens, construction and performance testing of plant, drafting foreign licensing agreements and
negotiating with insurance providers on rebuilding of plant following major fire.
Lawyer for art exhibition utilizing icons, tapestries, jewels, manuscripts and central Iconostasis from the Novedevichy Convent from the State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russian Federation. Duties included negotiation and drafting of agreements and protocols with museum, obtaining State Department approval protecting artifacts of international significance (i.e., gold artifacts back Russian Ruble), arranging shipment with Lufthansa, contracting the design and installation of exhibition space, personnel and staffing, promotion, marketing, gift shop and kiosk items.
Represented the parents in the first gestational
surrogacy (1991), the first artificial insemination surrogacy (1992), and the first donor surrogacy (1999)
in the state of Georgia. Services include drafting and
analysis of egg donation, embryo donation, surrogacy, and cryopreservation contracts, as well as representation in required court proceedings throughout Georgia. Cases have addressed multi-state and international issues of location of surrogates, infertile couples, and infertility clinics in sister states.
Authored papers published by the American Surrogacy Center, Inc. (TASC) at www.surrogacy.com, including “Observations of Laws of Surrogacy in the U.S.,” “The Legal Status of Surrogacy in Georgia,” and “Recent Court Decisions Concerning the Law of Surrogacy” (1996). Testified before the Georgia Senate on proposed surrogacy legislation and spoken at conferences on third party reproductive legal issues, including The Family Law Institute of the Georgia Bar (1999). Delivered a paper at the annual conference of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in San Diego in 2000 on Informed Consent and Third Party Reproductive Issues and in Philadelphia in 2004, on Managing Legal Risk in the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Environment. Addressed the annual Georgia Superior Court Judges conclave in St. Simons Island on Assisted Reproductive Technology (A.R.T.) and Surrogacy--A Perspective for the Georgia Jurist (2006).
PERSONAL 
Mark Johnson was born in Brunswick, Georgia on May 1, 1954. He lives in Marietta, Georgia with his wife, Todd, and daughters Neely and Lydia.
They attend First United Methodist Church of Marietta.
He enjoys running, gardening, cooking, and judging barbecue. Both Mark and Todd are Memphis Barbecue Network (MBN) certified judges, and judge barbecue competitions across the state of Georgia.
Reported Appellate Cases