Mark Foster

Mark and his team saved me, my family and my clients from a horrific ruling by the Engineering Board. 10 years ago I screwed up and wound up being convicted of a state jail felony. The Board was notified at the time, I served my sentence and restarted my life and career on a much better path. I th...ought it was behind me. When I submitted the criminal background check to the Engineering Board like I had done for other licenses a couple of years earlier I really didn't think much of it until I got a letter from the Board saying they had no record of my notification. One lesson I learned from my earlier experiences, get a good lawyer. I researched and make a short list of three and contacted all of them. Mark actually called me himself from Canada while he was on vacation. He seemed very knowledgeable and really listened. The other guys I contacted were quoting me prices while Mark was telling me about the process. Mark told me what they would be doing what the next steps would be for different scenarios and didn't sugar coat it. As an engineer I really appreciated his approach. You always need to know the scenarios and be able to discuss the what ifs. Mark really impressed me. I have dealt with many attorneys over the years both professionally and personally. Impressing me is no easy feat. So I hired Mark and his team. They prepared the response and everything seemed to be going okay and we had an open dialog with the Board. Then I get the call. The Board revoked my license retroactively for 10 years and I had to shut down my Firm since I was the only licensed engineer on staff. No hearing, just done. I was stunned, how could the board do this, what about all my work for the past 10 years, now technically not done by an engineer, my professional liability insurance would be vacated meaning no protection for me or my clients, my firm could not finish all the work we had under contract, how would I provide for my family?? I felt my entire would was collapsing in on me at that moment I couldn't even finish the phone conversation. I managed to get out I will have to call you back and I hung up. After I composed myself I called back and asked a single question "What can we do now? There is no way I can let this stand." We discussed the options and I told them what I wanted to do. We took the Board to District Court to get a temporary restraining order and get their ruling overturned. In short order we had the Board in district court and got the restraining order and a favorable ruling by the Judge who also indicated the Board would not win in the formal hearing. At that point we entered into a negotiated order where my licensed was revoked and then immediately reinstated with the same number. Something that had not been done before. There were many issues in my case from the initial notification being lost or not recorded, my father, who made the notification, was deceased and could not testify about making the notification, changes in the notification process the Board was initially ignoring, the hard line the Board was taking, misinterpretations of the board rules, the history of the rule changes, showing the Board how it could do what we thought was fair, and other things. Through it all, Mark and his team truly listened to me. One thing in particular they didn't understand at first was why it was important to me to keep my license number even if it was revoked and I was immediately able to be licensed again. By truly listening to me they understood how important that was to me. It took some doing, but with my particular circumstances they were able to show the board it was possible and then made it happen knowing how important it was to me. I watched other engineers without lawyers getting hammered at the Board meetings I attended and was so thankful I had hired Mark or I would have been hammered too. To all other engineers that need help, be smart, hire a good lawyer. Mark is a good lawyer!