A Great Lawyer Must Be a Great Negotiator: Skills for You to Be the Best Negotiator in the Room

Mark Grossman is a 28-year business lawyer who began focusing his practice on technology over 20 years ago.  This makes him an old-timer in a new practice area.  He is also an author and frequent speaker on technology, outsourcing, and the art and science of negotiating deals.  Mark's "TechLaw" column is published by "CIO Magazine."

Mark is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell, the highest level attainable, and was a member of the Florida Bar's Computer Law Committee.  Further, his peers chose Mark to appear in the last several editions of The Best Lawyers in America.  Since Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer-review survey in which more than 25,000 leading attorneys cast almost two million votes on the legal abilities of other lawyers in their specialties, and because lawyers are not required or allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.  Corporate Counsel magazine has called Best Lawyers "the most respected referral list of attorneys in practice."

A 1982 cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C., Mark started in the big-firm world working on large corporate deals.  Then he had his own firm for many years until one of Florida's larger law firms courted him in 1997.  They asked him to start and lead their technology practice, which he did until 2005.

Mark started his career as a business lawyer gaining experience as a negotiator and litigator, but then began to focus his practice on technology, outsourcing, telecommunications, licensing, and custom development deals.  Working on such deals led to experience with non-disclosure agreements, software audit disputes, computer use policies, the Internet, privacy policies, online contracts, e-commerce, document destruction policies, intellectual property, employment agreements, electronic discovery, and issues unique to start-ups.

Mark also has extensive experience as a litigator.  Although he no longer litigates, Mark uses his experience as a litigator when he is negotiating dispute settlements. 

Mark's clients have ranged from clients selling technology-related goods and services who needed a lawyer who understood their industry, to working with clients on the buying side of a transaction.  On that side, his clients have included banks, insurance companies, and medium and large sized businesses in many diverse industries.  Mark's clients have ranged from startups to Fortune 100 companies.

Mark's technology clients all share the need for a lawyer with meaningful experience in technology law.  In many cases, his clients are spending large amounts of money buying complex technologies and need to hire an attorney to insure that they have a meaningful contract.

In 1996, Mark started writing about technology law just as technology and the Internet were exploding and the dot com bubble started.  He began his writing career with PC World Magazine.  In 1997, he created his weekly "CyberLaw" column in South Florida's "Daily Business Review."  In 2000, he renamed his column "TechLaw" and moved it to the Miami Herald where the column ran for many years. 

Since the mid-1990's, Mark has spoken to hundreds of groups domestically and internationally including multiple appearances at Georgetown University Law Center's Advanced Computer Law Institute, COMDEX in Las Vegas, and seminars offered by the American Corporate Counsel Association.  He has also been a guest on many television and radio shows including ABC's "Nightline."

Mark authored the book Technology Law - What Every Business (and Business-Minded Person) Needs to Know, and released a revised edition in 2009.

Mark has written for Washington's "Legal Times," the "Texas Lawyer," "The Recorder of San Francisco," the "University of Texas School of Law Review of Litigation," and the Florida Bar's "Computer Law Journal."  He also co-authored a chapter called "Web Development Agreements" in the American Bar Association's book titled Internet Law for the Business Lawyer.

Currently, he is a member of the Board of Directors of the South Florida Technology Alliance, the Advisory Board of BNA's Electronic Commerce & Law Newsletter, and the Board of Editors of "Internet Law and Strategy," a publication of Law Journal Newsletters. 

Mark has served as Special Counsel for Technology for the X-Prize Foundation, a subject matter expert for the State of Florida's Internet Task Force, a member of the Board of Directors of the InternetCoast, General Counsel for the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association, and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Coral Gables Museum.  He was a member of the Board of Advisors for the Global Sourcing Forum from 2007 to 2010. 

In 1998, Mark was one of three co-founders of the software company Eisenworld, Inc., which Microsoft acquired in 2006.  Microsoft incorporated Eisenworld's "PC Relocator" software into Microsoft's Windows operating systems.

Mark received his B.A., with high honors, in 1979 from Stony Brook University.  He is a member of the New York and Florida Bars.