Member Bio
Mark D. Shifton focuses his practice in the areas of complex civil and commercial litigation in the state and federal courts in New Jersey and New York. Mark routinely represents owners, design professionals, and contractors in cases involving construction disputes and catastrophic property losses, and has extensive experience representing manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of a wide variety of industrial, consumer, and recreational products, including green building products, in both individual and class actions. Mark is regularly called upon to speak to various legal, insurance, and industry organizations on various topics such as investigating and defending catastrophic property loss claims, construction defect litigation, and risk management. Mark also routinely defends professional liability actions brought against attorneys, architects, and engineers, as well as the insurance industry and healthcare professionals.
In addition to his complex litigation practice, Mark also maintains a practice in the area of green building and sustainable development and routinely advises developers, design professionals, and contractors about the rapidly-evolving standards and developments in green building. Mark has been accredited as a LEED Green Associate by the Green Building Certification Institute, and has spoken widely on construction and green building issues before a variety of organizations, including the American Institute of Architects, the Defense Research Institute, the Claims and Litigation Management Alliance, the National Association of Home Builders, and the Property & Liability Resource Bureau.
Mark recently began a two-year term as the Vice Chair of the Defense Research Institute’s Construction Law Committee, serves as the Co-Chair of the New Jersey Defense Association’s Construction Law Committee, and is the former Chair of the DRI Product Liability Committee’s Building Products Specialized Litigation Group. Mark is also a former Chair of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Product Liability and Mass Tort Section and serves as an invited member of the New Jersey State Bar Association’s Special Committee on Renewable Energy, Cleantech and Climate Change.
Mark earned his Juris Doctorate from Fordham University School of Law in New York City, where he was the Notes and Articles Editor of the Fordham Urban Law Journal, and was active on the Moot Court Board. Mark’s personal interests include wreck diving off the Jersey Shore, struggling through triathlons, and reliving his teenage dreams of being a rock guitarist. To that end, Mark is the lead guitarist for The Defense Never Rests, a band composed of DRI Members which has played at the DRI’s Annual Meeting every year since 2021. Prior to becoming an attorney, Mark was an Emergency Medical Technician in New York.
Mark is a graduate of the David Rhoads American Inn of Court. Each year from 2011 through 2017, Mark was named as a Rising Star by the New Jersey edition of Super Lawyers, and he has been named as a Super Lawyer each year since 2019.