Mark and Associates

Mary Mark was faced with a job crisis when the company she was working for went bankrupt. Mary decided to launch her own litigation support business, Mary H. Mark and Associates in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The year was 1988 and the impact of technology on law was catching fire. Mary could see that smart law firms, burdened with boxes and files of crucial documents for trials and other litigation purposes, would be much more efficient if they could find innovative ways to organize and retrieve vital data quickly.

Using her skills as a paralegal she worked with her husband John, a computer programmer, and they devised proprietary software that not only cut hours and days off the time it traditionally took to enter and extract data, but their software was compatible with existing "off the shelf" programs. Soon, Mark and Associates began earning a reputation for giving their clients a competitive advantage with their technology services.

Fueled with a $100,000 loan from the SBA in 1992, Mark and Associates bought equipment crucial to the firm's expansion plans. The firm became one of the first to use videotaping techniques in depositions for presentation in the courtroom. The results were so startling that when Mary used it initially in a Seattle trial it turned the case in her client's favor. Today Mark and Associates works with some of the largest corporations in the state of Utah including banks, newspapers, insurance companies, and a gas pipeline company.

From her dining room table in 1988 to corporate offices in downtown Salt Lake employing nearly 25 people, Mark and Associates has become an integral part of the legal industry.

(Reprinted with permission from the 2005 SBA Small Business Guide.)

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