Meet Mark A. Correro

Admissions­­­­­­­­­­

State Bar of Texas

United States Supreme Court

United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas

United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas

United States District Court for the Western District of Texas

Licensure/Certification

• Texas Qualified Mediator, Frank Evans Center for Legal Responsibility, Houston, Texas
• Certified Attorney Ad Litem

Appointments

• Special Commissioner, Harris County, Nov. 2018—Present

Employment

• Founder, Law Office of Mark A. Correro, P.C., Houston, Texas, 2008–Present
• General Counsel, Masterplan, Dallas, Texas, 2009–Present
• Associate, Greenberg Traurig, L.L.P., Houston, Texas, 2006–2008
• Associate, Berg & Androphy, P.C., Houston, Texas, 2004–2006
• Law Clerk, Berg & Androphy, P.C., Houston, Texas, 2001–2004
• Law Clerk, First Court of Appeals, Houston, Texas, 2003

Representative Experience

• False Claims Act Litigation
  • Key member of the Berg & Androphy team that won a settlement with American Grocers in a qui tam & employment retaliation action in United States District Court. The case involved the alteration of expiration dates on food products sent to American troops in the Middle East. The settlement netted the client and the government about $13.2 million.
  • Key member of the Berg & Androphy team that represented one of the nine whistleblowers and won a settlement with Eli Lilly in a civil qui tam & employment retaliation action in U.S. District Court. The case involved off-label marketing of the drug Zyprexa. This civil settlement netted the government and all whistleblowers about $750 million. The government also received an additional $600 million in criminal fines.
  • Key member of the Berg & Androphy team that won a settlement with King Pharmaceuticals in a qui tam & employment retaliation action in United States District Court. The case involved the underpayment of Medicaid rebates, false claims, and best price violations. This settlement netted the client and government about $119 million.
  • Key member of the Berg & Androphy team that won a settlement with Rotech Healthcare, Inc. in a qui tam & employment retaliation action in United States District Court. Rotech paid $2 million to settle civil charges that it engaged in false or fraudulent conduct in billing Medicare for durable medical equipment. The government declined intervention. This settlement netted the client and government about $1.78 million. The negotiated settlement amount was a reflection of Rotech’s stock price of 34 cents per share at the time of settlement, down from $21 in early 2004 when the suit was filed.
• Commercial Litigation
  • As defense attorney, successfully represented staffing agency company in numerous separate employment claims brought by former employees. After evidentiary hearings, each claim was dismissed. Only one of the claims went up on appeal, and that appeal was also dismissed in full.
  • Obtained Temporary Restraining Order and after an evidentiary hearing, Temporary Injunction allowing client, a retail store, to remain open in its place of business despite attempts by commercial development manager to wrongfully evict.
  • Defense of wrongful death claim filed in Brazil. Attorney in charge of the Greenberg crisis team that represented a global seismic imaging company defending a wrongful death claim brought by the family of an employee that was taken hostage and executed while working in Cabinda, Angola’s north zone. The family alleged that the employee was killed by the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (“FLEF”). The family filed a claim for $3,000,000.00 in the 8^th Labor Court of Fortaleza-CE (Ceará, Brazil) alleging that the company failed to provide adequate security and failed to meet its obligations under the Brazilian Labor Code. With less than two weeks to respond or face default, Mr. Correro put together a response team, which was spread out on three continents, resourced local counsel, and spent over a week on the ground in Brazil gathering facts and evidence, answered the lawsuit, and successfully transferred the case to Mossoró—a much more favorable jurisdiction.
  • Key member of the Greenberg team that represented Kansas City Southern in a multimillion-dollar litigation involving a train derailment. On May 2, 2007, a non-KCS freight train carrying segments of the space shuttle’s solid rocket boosters derailed in Myrtlewood, AL, after a timber trestle collapsed. The train comprised cars of exceptional weight and configuration and was operating without proper clearance from the track owned by KCS. This incident has been cited as a reason behind a new set of FRA regulations proposed in August 2009.
  • Key member of the Greenberg team that successfully represented Kansas City Southern in arbitration of post-acquisition claims against Mexican maritime transportation company Grupo TMM. After the AAA Centre for International Dispute Resolution sustained KCS’s challenge to TMM’s second party-appointed arbitrator, the parties settled. KCS succeeded in recovering $39 million of a $54 million escrow, under a contractual formula that would have required KCS to prove $80 million in damages. TMM (represented by David Boies) settled TMM’s $96 million claims against KCS for $1.2 million.
  • Key member of the Greenberg team that successfully enjoined foreclosure and obtained $35-million reduction in claims by London-based steel supplier against Indian-owned steel production company U.S. Denro Steels, Inc. d/b/a Jindal United Steel Corp. and Saw Pipes USA, Inc. in Texas litigation and Swedish ICC arbitration proceedings.
  • Key member of the Greenberg team that won arbitration summary judgment for Kansas City Southern Railroad that multiple-well articulated cars are to be counted as a single car under trackage agreement.
  • Key member of the Greenberg team that won a $4.5 million arbitration award in favor of a broker-dealer. The client retained us after a trial on the merits where the jury found against the broker-dealer and awarded the plaintiff $4.5 million. While on appeal to the Fifth Circuit, Mr. Correro successfully filed for arbitration in the Western District of Texas.
• Criminal Defense
  • As a defense attorney, obtained dismissal and expunction of felony charges filed against a Vice President of an international energy firm.
• White-Collar Defense
  • Defense of antitrust and price fixing claim. Key member of the Greenberg team that resolved allegations by the Department of Justice alleging that Defendants participated in a global conspiracy to illegally fix prices of marine hose in violation of federal antitrust laws. Marine hose is used to transfer oil between tankers and storage facilities and is purchased by Shell, Exxon, Chevron, and other companies that are involved in the offshore extraction and transportation of petroleum products. It is also purchased and used by the Department of Defense. The conspiracy alleged that Defendants sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of marine hose and related products in the United States and elsewhere. Three of the individual defendants arrested and charged by the DOJ were also charged by the U.K. Office of Fair Trading (OFT) under the U.K. Enterprise Act for committing a cartel offense. These charges were the first cartel charges brought by the OFT under the Enterprise Act. Simultaneously, agents in the US and UK raided corporations around the world, including the Houston office of Phoenix Beattie, Corp., a marine hose manufacturer and American subsidiary of Continental AG.
  • Defense of antitrust and breach of contract claims against national steel manufacturer. Key member of the Greenberg team that successfully represented India-based Jindal Steel in pursuing and settling antitrust and breach of contract claims against U.S. Steel, which agreed to terminate an anticompetitive exclusive sales agency agreement (freeing $180 million of steel plate production annually), forgo over $50 million in past and future commissions, and remove its director from Jindal’s board of directors.
  • Lead Berg & Androphy team defending corporation’s president charged by the SEC in a multi-million dollar ponzi scheme and succeeded in convincing the district court for the Southern District of California that our client could invoke the Fifth Amendment in a civil case and refuse to turn over the company’s books and records.
  • Key member of the Berg & Androphy team representing Defendant Deutsche Bank in Enron Class Action in the Southern District of Texas. United States District Judge Melinda Harmon granted summary judgment and the case against Deutsche Bank was dismissed.
• Personal Injury
  • As plaintiff’s attorney, tried personal injury case in Harris County, Texas to a successful verdict. The case was hard-fought on both sides and presented a number of challenges, including language difficulties and missing and incomplete documents involving employment and medical care. In the end, the jury awarded plaintiff an amount greater than three times the amount the insurance company had offered on the day trial started.
  • As plaintiff’s attorney, successfully resolved Plaintiff’s claim through mediation in a personal injury case involving serious injuries, surgery and years of physical therapy. The case was in a difficult jurisdiction and had numerous legal obstacles, but through the use of key deposition testimony (of both defendant’s employees and plaintiff) and evidence developed in the course of discovery, a confidential resolution was reached that fairly compensated plaintiff for her injuries.

Representative Pro Bono Publico

• Currently representing Judge Darrell Jordan in ODonnell v. Harris County, et al., Cause No. 4:16-cv-01414
• Successfully represented Holocaust survivors in obtaining reparations from the German government.
• The Children’s Center, Inc.
  • Successfully obtained Texas guardianship for a minor in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (“ORR”). This landmark decision was the first time a Texas state district court exercised jurisdiction, granted guardianship, and prevented ICE from forcibly removing an unrepresented minor from the United States.
  • Acted as external general counsel for The Children’s Center, Inc. and achieved successful outcomes including:
    • Led internal investigation to resolve employee complaints about various employment related claims and potential liabilities involving employee alcohol consumption; supervised outside counsel; formed Internal Review Board; and successfully closed matter with executive action plan without incident;
    • The Children’s Center Inc. v. Arthur J. Gallagher Risk Management Services Inc., et al., Cause No. 09-cv-0290, In the 212^thDistrict Court, Galveston County, Texas (led internal investigation, supervised outside counsel, and obtained a $150,000.00 settlement for unpaid Ike damage to the Albertine Yeager Youth Crisis Center);
    • Herman L. Norton v. The Children’s Center and Nicolas Gomez, Cause No. 4:08-cv-02937, United States District Court, Southern District of Texas (led internal investigation, supervised outside counsel, and obtained successful resolution of employment and discrimination claims in mediation without trial).

Honors

• Standing Ovation Award, State Bar of Texas for “exceptional CLE volunteer” (2017)
• Selected by Texas Super Lawyers, 2014 & 215; Texas Super Lawyers recognizes the top 5% of lawyers
• Fellow of the Texas Bar Foundation, 2014; Recognizing top 1/3 of 1% of attorneys in Texas;
• America’s Most Honored Professionals—Top 10%, 2016 (American Registry)
• Top Attorneys—Texas, 2014–Present (as published in Texas Monthly)
• Top Lawyers, 2014–Present (as published in Houstonia)
• Houston Young Lawyer’s Bar Foundation, 2008 Fellowship Nomination
• Houston Bar Foundation Award for Most Outstanding Legal Article
• Clair E. Getty, Jr. Memorial Award for Outstanding Legal Writing
• Clements, O’Neill, Pierce, Wilson & Fulkerson, LLP Award for Best Article on Federal Law

Education

South Texas College of Law, Houston, Texas

Juris Doctor, May 2004

• Dean’s Honor List
• South Texas Law Review, Assistant Articles Editor; Professor Barber Distinguished Service Award
• Langdell Scholar, Constitutional Law
• Phi Delta Phi, The International Legal Honor Society, Vice Magister

Book Editor

Mark A. Correro, et al., Texas Perspectives on Firearms Law (State Bar of Texas) (forthcoming 2019)

Sean P. Healy, et al., The Legal Guide to NFA Firearms and Gun Trusts (Mark A. Correro ed., Haddon Hall Publishing 2nd ed. 2017).

Treatise Editor

Mark A. Correro, Chapter IX: Criminal Antitrust Enforcement, in Antitrust Law Developments (7th ed.) (2008).

Law Review Publications

Mark A. Correro, et al., Why Neuroscience Matters for a Rational Drug Policy, 11.1 Minn. J.L. Sci. & Tech. 11 (Winter 2010) (co-authored with Guggenheim Fellow David Eagleman, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at Baylor College of Medicine and New York Times bestselling author) (relied on by United States v. Hendrickson, 25 F. Supp. 3d 1166, 1173 (N.D. Iowa June 11, 2014) (downwardly departing from Sentencing Guidelines and stating “addition biologically robs drug abusers of their judgment, causing them to act impulsively and ignore the future consequences of their actions.”).

Mark A. Correro, The Lopez/Morrison Limitation on the Commerce Clause—Fact or Fabrication? 13 The Digest 17 (2007) (published by Syracuse Law School).

Mark A. Correro, Get a Divorce—Become a Felon: United States v. Emerson, 270 F.3d 203 (5th Cir. 2001), 45 S. Tex. L. Rev. 419 (2004).

Mark A. Correro, et al., Whistleblower & Federal Qui Tam Litigation—Suing the Corporation for Fraud, 45 S. Tex. L. Rev. 23 (2003).

Other Publications

Mark A. Correro, et al., Negotiating Crime: Plea Bargaining, Problem-Solving, & Restorative Justice in the 21st Century, Carolina Academic Press (forthcoming 2019).

Mark A. Correro, Joining Non-Signatories to an Arbitration Agreement, Dispute Resolution (2018) (co-author).

Mark A. Correro, et al., Firearms Law for Property Owners and Proprietors, State Bar of Texas, MCLE (Sept. 2016).

Mark A. Correro, et al., Joining Non-Signatories to an Arbitration: Recent Developments, In-House Perspective, Vol. 3, Iss. 3 (Aug. 2014).

Mark A. Correro, et al., Twombly Pleading Standard Satisfied in the Rail Freight Fuel Surcharge Antitrust Litigation, The Transportation Industry Committee of the Section of Antitrust Law (American Bar Association) Winter 2009, at 12.

Mark A. Correro, et al., A Q&A Guide to Dispute Resolution in the United States, Dispute Resolution (Practical Law Co. 2008/2009).

Mark A. Correro, et al., Sherman Act Violation:Alaska-Rent-Car, Sherman Act Section 1 Committee (American Bar Association) Vol. 5, No. 3, Spring 2008, at 29.

Mark A. Correro, et al., Agreements in the Marine Hose Investigation, in Antitrust Law Developments (7th ed.) (2008).

Mark A. Correro, et al., DOJ Changes Standard for Foreign Cooperation in Criminal Investigation, Competition and Trade Law Report and Update (2008).

Mark A. Correro, Joining Non-Signatories to an Arbitration Agreement, Dispute Resolution (Practical Law Co. 2007/2008) (co-author).

Mark A. Correro, A Q & A Guide to Dispute Resolution in the United States, Dispute Resolution (Practical Law Co. 2007/2008) (co-author).

Mark A. Correro, et al., Ruling Allows Grand Jury Witnesses Access to Their Testimony, Greenberg Traurig LLP Litigation Alert (2007).

Mark A. Correro, et al., Joining Non-Signatories to an Arbitration: Recent Developments, In-House Perspective, Vol. 3, Iss. 3 (August 2007).

Mark A. Correro, Federal Qui Tam (False Claims) Litigation: The Government’s Watchdog, 42 Hous. Lawyer No. 4 (2005) (co-author).

Mark A. Correro, An Update:Whistleblower and Federal Qui Tam Litigation—Suing the Corporation for Fraud, 34 False Cl. Act and Qui Tam Q. Rev. 63 (2005) (reprinted with permission of South Texas Law Review) (co-author).

Mark A. Correro, et al., The Perils of Off-Label Marketing—Navigating the FDA’s Regulatory Minefield, 148 Script Magazine 43 (September 2005).

Mark A. Correro, et al., Federal Qui Tam (False Claims) Litigation: The Government’s Watchdog, 42 Hous. Lawyer No. 4 (2005).

Mark A. Correro, et al., An Update:Whistleblower and Federal Qui Tam Litigation—Suing the Corporation for Fraud, 34 False Cl. Act and Qui Tam Q. Rev. 63 (2005) (reprinted with permission of South Texas Law Review).

Mark A. Correro, Criminal Violations of the Federal Food, Drug,and Cosmetic Act, in White Collar Crime, 2d ed. (West Publishing 2004).

Selected Presentations

Mark A. Correro, 8^th Annual Course, Firearms Law: What Every Texas Lawyer Needs to Know, Texas State Bar MCLE Course No. TBD (TBD, 2019, Dallas, Texas) (Course Director);

Mark A. Correro, Federal White-Collar Crime, Texas State Bar MCLE Course No. TBD (April 10, 2019, Austin, Texas) (Course Director);

Mark A. Correro, 1^st Annual Course, Handling Your First (or Next) False Claims Act Case, Texas State Bar MCLE Course No. 174022324 (November 30, 2018, Austin, Texas) (Course Director);

Mark A. Correro, 39.14 and Discovery, Handling Your First (or Next) DWI Case, Texas State Bar MCLE Course No. 174017259 (October 17, 2018, Austin, Texas);

Mark A. Correro, 7^th Annual Course, Firearms Law: What Every Texas Lawyer Needs to Know, Texas State Bar MCLE Course No. 174015577 (September 20–21, 2018, San Antonio, Texas) (Course Director);

Mark A. Correro, 6^th Annual Course, Firearms Law: What Every Texas Lawyer Needs to Know, Texas State Bar MCLE Course No. 928000339 (September 14–15, 2017, Houston, Texas) (Course Director);

Mark A. Correro, 5^th Annual Course, Firearms Law: What Every Texas Lawyer Needs to Know, Texas State Bar MCLE Course No. 901347750 (September 21–22, 2016, Austin, Texas) (Course Director);

Mark A. Correro, 4^th Annual Course, Firearms Law: What Every Texas Lawyer Needs to Know, Texas State Bar MCLE Course No. 901316303 (September 18, 2015, Dallas, Texas) (Course Director);

Mark A. Correro, 3^rd Annual Course, Firearms Law: What Every Texas Lawyer Needs to Know, Texas State Bar MCLE Course No. 901289305 (September 12, 2014, Houston, Texas) (Course Director);

Mark A. Correro, Avoiding Malpractice and Ethics Violations in Firearms Matters, What Every Lawyer Needs to Know About Firearms Law, Texas State Bar MCLE Course No. 901246096 (September 28, 2012, San Antonio, Texas);

Mark A. Correro, The False Claims Act in Whistleblower Litigation, National Employment Lawyers Association 2009 Annual Convention (June 2009, Rancho Mirage, California);

Mark A. Correro & Kenneth J. Harder, Civil and Criminal Exposures Associated with Form I-9 Non-compliance, Justinian Society of Houston Lawyers MCLE (2009);

Mark A. Correro, J. M. Salvage, R. Livingston & R. Gray, The Aphasia Screening test for Older Children: A Quantitative Approach (1998) (research study examining the reliability of a quantitative scoring procedure for Aphasia Screening Test for Older Children. Presented at the annual convention of the Southwestern Psychological Association in New Orleans, Louisiana).

Book Reviews

Mark A. Correro, Harry G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit, Hous. Lawyer (Sept./Oct. 2007) (co-author).

Professional & Community Service Activities

• National
  • Member, American Bar Association
  • Member, Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association
    • Criminal Practice & Procedures Committee, 2008–2009
  • Member of the Board of Directors, National Italian American Bar Association, 2006—2010
  • Committee Member, Young Professionals for Aspiring Youth, 2006–2008
  • F License, The United States Soccer Federation (Member of FIFA)

• Texas
  • Fellow, Texas Bar Foundation, 2015–Present
  • Member, Texas Bar College, 2016–Present
  • Member, Bar Association of the Fifth Federal Circuit, 2014–Present
  • Chairman, Board of Directors, The Children’s Center, Inc., 2010–2011
  • Member, Board of Directors, The Children’s Center, Inc., 2007–2011
  • Member, Houston Bar Association
    • Member, Juvenile Consequences Committee, 2010–2011
    • Associate Editor, The Houston Lawyer, 2007–2010
    • Member, Editorial Board, The Houston Lawyer, 2005–2010
  • Founder & President, Justinian Society of Houston Lawyers
  • Texas Appleseed, School to Prison Pipeline Project
  • Head Coach, Duncan YMCA Soccer, Fall 2015
  • Member, 100 Club, Inc. (survivor’s fund for estates of law enforcement officers and firefighters killed or catastrophically injured in the line of duty)

To request a case evaluation and learn how Mark Correro can help you, call (832) 384-9783.

*This is intended only to provide information about the experience and ability of the attorneys, and does not guarantee that similar results can be attained in every case.