Mr. Mark A. Johnson

Georgia Ducks Unlimited Area Chairman of the Year, 1988

Georgia Bar, 1979 to present

Georgia Younger Lawyer's Continuing Legal Education Bridge the Gap Committee, 1983 to 1985

REPRESENTATIVE WORK PRODUCT

Lawyer for 440 acre mixed use development, from acquisition, planning, zoning, permitting, subdivision, environmental, archeological, financing, through architectural control stages over 7 year period. Public/private elements included loop roads, road bed and right-of-way swaps, parks and school dedication.

Lawyer for co-composting company with first generation technology in successful bid for municipal franchise to process 300 tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) and 150 tons of sewage waste daily into usable compost product. Duties included preparing and submitting Request for Proposal, lobbying public officials and professional staff, negotiating and drafting siting and 20 year operating agreement, interfacing with municipal bond counsel, securing environmental and land use permits, obtaining state and federal permits to market compost product, facilitating delivery of MSW with waste companies and independent haulers, securing process guaranty through Siemens, construction and performance testing of plant, drafting foreign licensing agreements and negotiating with insurance providers on rebuilding of plant following major fire.

Lawyer for art exhibition utilizing icons, tapestries, jewels, manuscripts and central Iconostasis from the Novedevichy Convent from the State Historical Museum, Moscow, Russian Federation. Duties included negotiation and drafting of agreements and protocols with museum, obtaining State Department approval protecting artifacts of international significance (i.e., gold artifacts back Russian Ruble), arranging shipment with Lufthansa, contracting the design and installation of exhibition space, personnel and staffing, promotion, marketing, gift shop and kiosk items.

Represented the parents in the first gestational surrogacy (1991), the first artificial insemination surrogacy (1992), and the first donor surrogacy (1999) in the state of Georgia. Services include drafting and analysis of egg donation, embryo donation, surrogacy, and cryopreservation contracts, as well as representation in required court proceedings throughout Georgia. Cases have addressed multi-state and international issues of location of surrogates, infertile couples, and infertility clinics in sister states.

Authored papers published by the American Surrogacy Center, Inc. (TASC) at www.surrogacy.com, including "Observations of Laws of Surrogacy in the U.S.," "The Legal Status of Surrogacy in Georgia," and "Recent Court Decisions Concerning the Law of Surrogacy" (1996). Testified before the Georgia Senate on proposed surrogacy legislation and spoken at conferences on third party reproductive legal issues, including The Family Law Institute of the Georgia Bar (1999). Delivered a paper at the annual conference of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) in San Diego in 2000 on Informed Consent and Third Party Reproductive Issues and in Philadelphia in 2004, on Managing Legal Risk in the Assisted Reproductive Technologies Environment. Addressed the annual Georgia Superior Court Judges conclave in St. Simons Island on Assisted Reproductive Technology (A.R.T.) and Surrogacy--A Perspective for the Georgia Jurist (2006).

PERSONAL

Mark Johnson was born in Brunswick, Georgia on May 1, 1954. He lives in Marietta, Georgia with his wife, Todd, and daughters Neely and Lydia.

They attend First United Methodist Church of Marietta.

He enjoys running, gardening, cooking, and judging barbecue. Both Mark and Todd are Memphis Barbecue Network (MBN) certified judges, and judge barbecue competitions across the state of Georgia.