Mark W. Pugsley

Mark Pugsley is a trial lawyer who primarily handles securities and investment disputes. He is the Chair of the Securities Litigation Group at Ray Quinney & Nebeker. Mr. Pugsley was the Chair of the Securities Section of the Utah State Bar in 2006 and has been a member of the Advisory Board for the Utah Division of Securities. He is a founder and member of the Utah Securities Association. He practiced for several years in Los Angeles, California before moving to Utah, and holds active licenses to practice law in both California and Utah.

The majority of Mr. Pugsley's work involves civil securities litigation, regulatory investigations, FINRA arbitrations, investment advisor disputes, and receivership litigation for parties on all sides of these matters. He has handled many securities arbitrations and frequently defends corporations, officers, accountants, brokerage firms and brokers in investigations, administrative actions and civil litigation brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Utah Division of Securities, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA, formerly NASD). He has been involved in internal investigations for publicly-traded companies, and advises companies and brokerage firms on disclosure and compliance issues.

Mr. Pugsley maintains an AV Preeminent (5.0) rating with Martindale-Hubbell, which is the highest rating awarded to attorneys for professional competence and ethics. Mr. Pugsley is listed in The Best Lawyers in America Tier 1 in Utah for Securities Law, and in Mountain States Super Lawyers in the area of Securities Litigation. He was recently recognized as a "Highly Recommended" lawyer in Utah by Benchmark Plaintiff and has been listed by Utah Business Magazine as one of Utah’s “Legal Elite” in the category of Civil Litigation in every year since the list's inception in 2004.

Mr. Pugsley maintains a blog relating to securities fraud issues here in Utah: UtahSecuritiesFraud.com

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REPRESENTATIVE SECURITIES LITIGATION

• Successfully obtained a ruling that establishes who is a "customer" of a brokerage firm in a selling away case. Lincoln Financial v. HealthRight Partners, USDC Case No. 2:09CV650.
• Successfully defended temporary restraining orders sought against several brokers who moved from one brokerage firm to Ameriprise Financial. Merrill Lynch v. Baxter, USDC Case No. 1:09 CV-00045 and Merrill Lynch v. Mecham, USDC Case no. 2:09 CV-00283.
• Represented multiple defendants in clawback lawsuits brought by the court-appointed receiver in Securities and Exchange Commission v. Vescor Capital Corp., et al. USDC Case 1:08-cv-00012-DB
• Counsel to USANA in multiple class actions, including a federal case that was dismissed by Judge Dale A. Kimball on July 23, 2008. Ashok Kapur v. USANA Health Sciences, et al. USDC Case No. 2:07-CV-177. Opinion at 2008 WL 2901705.
• Successfully argued for dismissal of an administrative lawsuit filed by the Utah Division of Securities against a prominent Utah broker-dealer. All claims were dismissed by the ALJ in January of 2008.
• Litigation counsel to the court-appointed receiver in the SEC enforcement action styled SEC v. Novus Technologies, LLC, et al., USDC Case No. 2:07-CV-235.
• Representation of USA Securities, USA Commercial Mortgage Company, USA Capital Realty Advisors, USA Capital Diversified Trust Deed Fund, and USA Capital First Trust Deed Fund in multiple federal and state regulatory investigations and related litigation, USBC Case No. BK-S-06-10725 LBR (Nevada)
• Representation of two former executives for TenFold Corporation in SEC v. Tenfold, USDC Case No. 2:03-CV-442. All claims were dismissed by the SEC in December of 2005
• Representation of the Utah Educational Savings Plan Trust in an administrative settlement with the SEC, 1933 Act Release No. 8601, August 4, 2005, File No. 3-12004
• Representation of several defendants in litigation brought by the SEC and the accompanying receivership action captioned SEC v. David Wolfson, et al., USDC Case No. 2:03-CV-0914
• Representation of several defendants in the SEC enforcement action captioned SEC v. Allen Wolfson, USDC Case No. 2:02-CV-1086
• Representation of three former Fidelity branch managers in a joint SEC and NYSE investigation, and in one of the cases that went to trial before the NYSE Hearing Board