Mark A. Cunningham

Mark A. Cunningham is a partner in the Litigation Practice Group and co-team leader of the corporate compliance and white collar defense team. Mark provides strategic advice to clients on competition and trade issues related to the structuring of national and global distribution networks, joint ventures, mergers and acquisitions, and intellectual property protection. Mark also serves as first-chair trial counsel for companies and individuals under law enforcement scrutiny or facing bet-the-company litigation.Mark is ranked in the first band — the top tier — for white-collar crime and government investigation in Louisiana by Chambers USA and Benchmark Litigation, Super Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in America, and New Orleans CityBusiness and serves as primary outside antitrust and compliance counsel for companies in a wide range of industries, including the petrochemical, energy, agriculture, financial services, insurance pharmaceutical, food, healthcare, and entertainment sectors. While much of his work for clients is highly confidential, his recent public antitrust engagements include serving as lead trial counsel for the Sun Belt Conference in multi-district antitrust litigation challenging athletic scholarships, for the Sun Belt Conference in multi-district litigation seeking class action treatment for student athlete concussion claims, and for Stewart Enterprises in the merger clearance investigation of the $1.4 billion acquisition by Service Corporation International. Mark also counsels clients on their consumer protection, advertising, privacy, and data security obligations under federal, state, and international law. His work in this area includes development and oversight of an electronic data export plan for a significant energy concern and counseling clients in privacy and advertising-related investigations and proceedings before the Federal Trade Commission, state attorney generals, and the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau (BBB). In addition to his work for firm clients, Mark has dedicated much of his career to working on criminal justice reform. He has served as lead trial counsel in a number of high-profile lawsuits challenging prosecutorial misconduct and government overreach and was recently appointed by a court as co-lead trial counsel in a constitutional class action challenge to the public defender system in Louisiana. In 2016, Mark received the Orleans Public Defenders Award for Extraordinary Commitment to Public Defense after he obtained the dismissal of felony criminal charges levied against a defense investigator in retaliation for her public defense work. In 2015, the lawyers of the State of Louisiana elected Mark to serve as the 75th president of the Louisiana State Bar Association. During his service as LSBA president, Mark worked closely with the Louisiana Supreme Court on the establishment of an Access to Justice Commission and on prisoner re-entry and other programs designed to end mass incarceration.