Mark Brown

Partner – Commercial disputes

Mark has approaching 30 years’ experience handling complex contract and tort disputes at all levels of the English courts and in ad hoc and institutional arbitrations.

Mark’s clients include corporations operating in industry sectors including life sciences/pharma, information technology and digital media. He is highly experienced in both court litigation and arbitration, as well as managing and resolving commercial disputes before they reach court or an arbitral tribunal.

Mark’s disputes expertise in the life sciences sector runs across a variety of sector-specific contracts relating to IP-rich assets and highly technical subject matter, ranging from licences and collaboration agreements to supply and distribution contracts. He also experienced in product liability and misuse of confidential information disputes. His clients include several household name pharmaceutical companies.

Mark’s life sciences experience includes:

  • Representing a pharma company in a licence royalties claim for the development of a monoclonal antibody blockbuster drug.
  • Acting for a pharma company in a contested termination of a contract for the manufacture and supply of a licensed active pharmaceutical ingredient and failure to comply with “reasonable endeavours” obligations under a licence, development and commercialisation contract.
  • Representing a pharma company in a claim against a CMO for breaches of a technical quality agreement and GMP guidelines for out-of-specification API batches.
  • Advising a biotech company concerning breaches of work orders under a master services agreement for the conduct of clinical trials.
  • Acting for a pharma company in a claim of misuse of confidential information relating to the formula of an active pharmaceutical ingredient.

Mark’s tech, media and telecoms experience includes:

  • Representing global advertising and media company, WPP, in a dispute over breaches of a share purchase agreement concerning a cutting-edge programmatic platform placing £billions worth of digital advertising annually.
  • Representing the UK’s telecoms regulator Ofcom to enforce regulatory fines for breaches of the Broadcasting Code.
  • Acting for leading gaming developer/publisher, Activision Blizzard, in obtaining first English court injunction restraining the use of “cheats” and “bots” in the digital gaming environment.
  • Acting for leading telecoms and cloud communications company in a wrongful termination contract dispute with the principal Algerian mobile network operator relating to an MSA for connecting international application-to-person messaging.

Mark runs Bristows’ Groupe Juridique Francophone, which provides a full range of legal services to French and Francophone companies with commercial interests in the UK. He speaks fluent French and Italian.

Mark is a member of The Association for International Arbitration.

Credentials

  • LLB Honours (Law), The London School of Economics and Political Science
  • French Law degree, University of Strasbourg
  • Qualified 1995
  • Partner 2007
  • Admitted in Republic of Ireland (non-practising)
  • Advocaat bij de Balie te Brussel

Publications

Biotech Review of the Year

Read here

What others say

“Mark Brown and Ben Coleman are very good at identifying and testing the legal and strategic strengths and weaknesses of a case and considering it from every angle at the outset. This means that clients have a good early understanding of the risks of the disputes they are involved in and can make informed decisions about how to approach them.” Legal 500 2027
“Mark Brown - calm, experienced, reliable partner.” Legal 500 2027
“Mark Brown is an exceptionally experienced and competent commercial litigator - clients really value his judgment and strategic approach. Really good client-communication skills.” Legal 500 2025
“Mark Brown's team has excellent knowledge - a really great service.” Legal 500 2025

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