Mark H. Allen
, a veteran business attorney with 28 years of broad-based experience as a business owner, strategic advisor, senior corporate executive and general counsel for publicly traded companies, and a transactional lawyer with an emphasis in taxation in private practice, has joined the law firm of McAfee & Taft in its Tulsa office. He is the newest member of the state’s largest combined corporate/commercial transactions and tax legal teams.
Throughout his career, Allen has served as lead counsel and strategic business advisor on significant legal and business negotiations and transactions involving both public and private companies engaged in a wide range of industries. Much of his work has involved complex mergers and acquisitions, virtual and joint ventures, key strategic commercial agreements, corporate structuring, sophisticated financing structures, transactional due diligence, state and local incentives, and transaction-based tax planning.
“Because of his diverse career experience working on both sides of the negotiating table, Mark has a truly unique and fresh perspective of the challenges and opportunities facing businesses today,” said Richard D. Nix, managing director with McAfee & Taft. “His proven understanding of business from the inside out has provided him the skills and know-how to craft effective, practical solutions for companies of all sizes, and we’re pleased he has chosen to join McAfee & Taft to take advantage of the depth of talent, comprehensive business counseling and legal services, and vast technological and human resources we have to offer our clients.”
Mark served in private practice at two Tulsa-based law firms, including one he co-founded in 1994 and for which he served as president, over the course of 17 years before transitioning to the corporate arena in 1999. Over the course of the next 11 years, he served as president and chief operating officer of TV Guide Affiliate Sales, Inc., executive vice president of technology licensing and business development for Gemstar-TV Guide International, Inc., executive vice president and general counsel of an acquisition company owned by Liberty Media, and as an executive vice president in various capacities, including as general counsel for a period of time, for OpenTV. Prior to returning to private practice with McAfee & Taft, he served as president and co-owner of Tulsa-based Pennington Allen Capital Partners, a private equity firm which specializes in providing capital and strategic and operational expertise to its business partners and portfolio companies.
Allen is a graduate of The University of Oklahoma and the Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law and a member of the Tulsa County Bar Association, Oklahoma Bar Association and American Bar Association. Throughout the years, he has been active in the Tulsa community, previously serving in leadership and advisory positions with the Child Abuse Network, Leadership Tulsa, Tulsa Area United Way, Tulsa Chapter of the American Heart Association and Youth Service of Tulsa.