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J. Mark Avery

Partner
Tel: (512) 476-0005
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Mark Avery is a highly experienced commercial transaction attorney who assists his clients with their business, commercial real estate, wealth preservation and estate planning needs. Mark mostly assists clients with business sales, purchases, reorganizations, contracts and operations.

Over more than eleven years, Mark has been involved in the successful completion of several hundred asset, stock and real estate sales and business acquisitions, mergers, conversions, recapitalizations, receiverships, start ups and commercial loans (both domestically and internationally) with values between $100,000.00 and $500,000,000.00. He also has a great depth of experience in contract negotiation and drafting in Spanish. He works with investment bankers, business bankers, lenders, buyers and sellers in business sales and purchases in Austin and throughout the country in corporate and business finance relating to buying, selling and recapitalizing business assets, stock and real estate. His business clients are in such diverse industries as energy, software, finance, securities, IT, manufacturing, real estate development, healthcare, insurance, bioscience, construction, and entertainment.

While believing that a simple estate plan is ideal, he advises his clients on available estate planning options (and prepares such plans as requested) that will best reach the client´s goals.

Mark has a depth of experience representing the departments of insurance in various states, including Virginia, Colorado, Kansas, and Missouri. He assisted them in insurance company receiverships, conversions, and finance.

Mark often speaks to groups about how to buy, sell and operate businesses from a legal perspective while advising on how to lower potential liabilities.

Mark earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in both Spanish and International Business from the University of Idaho, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He then earned his Juris Doctorate degree from Brigham Young University, where he was elected to Phi Delta Phi and served as a Senior Editor on the Board of Advocates.

At the beginning of his career, Mark worked for two trial judges who took the time to give him special insight into what is most important to a trial court when considering commercial disputes including contract enforcement. He served as a Summer Law Clerk for the Honorable Judge Edward C. Prado of the United States District Court, Western District of Texas, in San Antonio, Texas, and the Honorable Judge Anthony Schofield of the Utah Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah. Mark integrates such insight into the negotiations he conducts and the legal documents he prepares.

Mark is a member of both the State Bar of Texas and the Bar of the District of Columbia. He coaches basketball for the Lake Travis Youth Association, and is active in other nonprofit organizations such as the J. Reuben Clark Law Society (promoting ethics in the legal profession), Austin Cosmopolitan Rotary Club (promoting local and international charitable work– especially for children), the Austin Management Society (promoting business ethics) and the church he attends with his family.

Professional Licenses & Memberships

  • State Bar of Texas, 1998
  • Bar of the District of Columbia, 1999
  • Member, State Bar of Texas Corporations Committee
  • Member, State Bar of Texas LLC Committee
  • Board Member, J. Reuben Clark Law Society
  • Member, Austin Bar Association
  • Member, Austin Management Society
  • Member, Austin Technology Council 
  • Member, Phi Beta Kappa
  • Member, Phi Delta Phi

Education

  • University of Idaho, Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Languages and Business, 1995
  • Brigham Young University, Juris Doctorate, 1998
  • Law Clerk for the Honorable Edward C. Prado, U.S. District Court, Western District of Texas
  • Law Clerk for the Honorable Anthony Schofield, Utah Fourth District Court

Please view articles and forms which relate to Mark´s work