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Mark T. Koerner

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Lansing
313 South Washington Square
Lansing, MI 48933
T 517.371.8226

Overview

Whatever the legal question at hand, Mark Koerner has built a reputation of customizing his services to address the specific concerns of each client. He assists municipal entities (including transit authorities and drain commissioners), businesses and IT clients in achieving their legal goals, developing their organizations and minimizing risk.

Mark understands the unique challenges that clients face. On a daily basis, he works to find practical solutions to complex problems in areas that include:

  • Transit: Mark has worked with many transportation authorities on a wide range of general operations matters, labor and employment issues, contract drafting, review and negotiation, policy drafting and review, public financing, construction of new transit facilities and compliance with state and federal laws.
  • Drain: Mark has provided legal counsel for numerous projects concerning establishment, construction and maintenance of both county and inter-county drains. He has also represented Drain Commissioners in various flooding litigation matters. Additionally, several counties retain Mark to assist with the establishment of lake levels and creation of lake level special assessment districts.
  • General Counsel: Mark has extensive experience handling "general counsel" legal matters for public entities. He regularly attends board meetings, prepares legal opinions, counsels on Freedom of Information Act and Open Meetings Act compliance issues and handles contract drafting, review and negotiations.
  • Labor Law: Mark has counseled and represented clients in the negotiation and drafting of collective bargaining agreements, grievance defense, and mediation and arbitration.
  • Employment Law: Mark has experience helping employers understand their rights to exercise sound labor and employment practices, not only to protect the organization, but also the workforce. This includes but is not limited to drafting policy and procedure manuals and reviewing contracts.
  • General Litigation: While the goal is to minimize risk, Mark takes an aggressive and proactive approach to resolving litigation while being mindful of his clients’ desire for cost-effective representation. He has experience before the Michigan Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of Michigan.
  • Business and Information Technology: Many businesses have found Mark’s knowledge of information technology and privacy law instrumental to helping them keep their assets secure. He has helped businesses with electronic discovery, e-commerce, software licensing, IT document drafting, health information privacy and many other areas of IT law. In addition to counsel regarding IT and privacy, he has assisted corporations in every stage of their development, from a start-up entity in need of general formation advice to an established corporation seeking advice on complex business matters.

Honors & Recognitions

Best Lawyers in America® - Municipal Law, 2025

Affiliations

Memberships & Affiliations

Legal Affiliations:

  • Ingham County Bar Association

  • State Bar of Michigan

  • State Bar of Illinois 

Community Affiliations:

  • Sparrow Foundation
    • Dapper Dad Campaign
      • 2019, 2021

Experience

Representative Matters

Transit

  • Contract Drafting/Review/Negotiation; Reviews and revises various contracts, including, but not limited to: Interagency Agreements, facilities repair and maintenance agreements, purchase of service agreements, MDOT and FTA agreements;
  • Defense of FTA Complaints: Successfully defended an FTA complaint from a private charter operator as well as successfully defended an FTA complaint that a transit agency was providing school bus service in violation of the federal law;
  • Public financing for construction of new transit facilities;
  • Contract review and development related to the construction of new transit facilities;
  • Contract development for various transit-related issues including bus procurement, facilities repair, master plan development and vehicle service.

Municipal

  • Issuing Legal Opinions: Regularly issues legal opinions on various issues including use of public funds, disposal of public property, weapons and the right to carry, and issues surrounding millages;
  • Legislative Updates and Review: Provides general legislative updates on a regular basis;
  • Freedom of Information Act Requests and Compliance: Regularly assists in responding to FOIA requests;
  • Open Meetings Act Compliance: Answers questions and assists with Open Meetings Act Compliance on a regular basis; and
  • Millage Issues: Regularly provides legal guidance concerning millages including drafting Board resolutions and millage language for ballots.

Drain

  • Petitions drain projects pursuant to the Michigan Drain Code of 1956 as amended;
  • Establishes Lake Levels;
  • Defense of flooding litigation; and
  • Public financing for public Drain projects pursuant to the Michigan Drain Code of 1956 as amended.

Employment

  • Labor/Employment Law: Handled grievances on behalf of a Charter Township; provided counseling during negotiations of a renewed collective bargaining agreement; negotiated and drafted new collective bargaining agreement for transit authority; Currently counsels with day-to-day employment issues for various transportation authority clients; and
  • Policy Drafting and Review: Review and revise employee policy manuals, operations and managerial procedures manuals and employment/job descriptions for various transit authorities.

General Litigation

  • Provides General Corporate Counsel including business formation, contracts, mergers and acquisitions and real estate matters;
  • Litigation Avoidance Through Best Practices; and
  • Litigation/Alternative Dispute Resolution.

Business 

  • Provide General Counsel; and
  • Counsel on data security.

Communications

Recent Blog Posts

Michigan Labor & Employment Law Blog

Publications

News & Events

Speaking Engagements

View More

News

Media

2024 Labor & Employment Law Update

2024 Labor and Employment Law Update (Full Video)
2024 Labor and Employment Law Update (Full Video)
Concerns Surrounding Employee Drug and Alcohol Testing Policies
Concerns Surrounding Employee Drug and Alcohol Testing Policies

2023 Labor & Employment Law Update

Workplace Policies: Employee Drug Testing
Workplace Policies: Employee Drug Testing

Education

John Marshall Law School, J.D., 2000

John Marshall Law School, LL.M., 2000, Information Technology Law

Michigan State University, B.A., 1996 

Bar and Court Admissions

Illinois

Michigan

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan

Lansing
Southfield
Grand Rapids
Detroit
Holland