Partner
Mark D.
Changaris
Mr. Changaris helps his clients achieve their business and strategic goals across a wide variety of practice areas and industries, including complex litigation, construction law, corporate law, intellectual property, and real estate. As a solutions-driven, pragmatic advocate, Mr. Changaris is a trusted advisor for his clients and values building long-term relationships to help them succeed. Additional details regarding his experience and professional qualifications are set forth below. When Mr. Changaris is not practicing law, he is an avid hiker, mountain biker, and skier and will often be found on the trails in Boulder and Summit County, Colorado.
Experience
Construction Law
As part of Mr. Changaris’ construction law practice, he assists owners, contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers in connection with a wide variety of projects, with a special emphasis on EPC contracts and design-build contracts. He works on residential developments, industrial facilities, maintenance structures, mining infrastructure, and school construction. His involvement has included negotiating agreements, assisting clients in structuring proposed transactions, counseling clients to mitigate risk, filing and foreclosing mechanics’ liens, and helping clients evaluate and resolve contract disputes and related conflicts.
Corporate Law
As part of his corporate transactional practice, Mr. Changaris counsels clients on a broad array of business matters, including entity formation, corporate governance, tax planning, mergers and acquisitions, asset sales, stock issuances, private placements, financing, and debt or equity offerings. Mr. Changaris assists clients by negotiating and drafting loan and financing documents, security agreements, employment agreements, and non-compete and non-disclosure agreements. His transactional experience spans multiple industries, including construction, mining, software development, manufacturing, and advertising.
Intellectual Property
Mr. Changaris assists clients with trademark, copyright, and patent-related matters in many different fields, including information technology, software, advertising, product manufacturing, product distribution, and merchandising. In the technology field, he assists clients with drafting and negotiating license agreements, including Software as a Service (SaaS) agreements, development agreements, and professional services agreements. In the products manufacturing and construction fields, he helps clients implement contracting standards and forms, negotiated distribution agreements, drafted risk management documents, assisted in the development of product warranties and claims procedures, and assisted in the protection of intellectual property rights. Mr. Changaris also assists clients in enforcing and protecting their intellectual property rights through copyright, trademark, and patent litigation.
Litigation
Mr. Changaris counsels clients through all phases of dispute resolution, including informal business-to-business negotiations, stipulated judgments and settlements, litigation in state and federal court, arbitration with the Judicial Arbiter Group (JAG), and international arbitration with the Internation Chamber of Commerce (ICC). His cases have involved complex commercial disputes, insurance coverage disputes, breach of contract, civil theft, environmental contamination, CERCLA, NEPA, real estate disputes, mechanics’ liens, construction defects, breach of fiduciary duties or corporate trust, corporate fraud, and abuse, securities fraud, including Rule 10b-5 of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, SEC enforcement actions, fraudulent transfers, foreclosures, and landlord-tenant disputes.
Real Estate
As part of his real estate transactional practice, Mr. Changaris assists clients with their residential and commercial real estate needs, including residential and commercial leasing, purchase and sale agreements, all phases of due diligence (including title review), financing, oil and gas, and 1031 exchanges. Mr. Changaris also assists both borrowers and lenders with negotiating and drafting loan documents, security instruments, and related transactional documents, including defeasance agreements. In addition, he assists property owners, lenders, landlords, and tenants with forcible entry and detainer actions (eviction proceedings), public trustee foreclosure actions, and creditor rights in bankruptcy.
EDUCATION & ADMISSIONS
JURIS DOCTOR
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SCHOOL OF LAW, 2008
BACHELOR OF SCIENCE
FORT LEWIS COLLEGE, 2005 (SUMMA CUM LAUDE)
U.S. District Court, District of Colorado
2008
U.S. District Court, Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
2008
Colorado
2008
Professional Associations
American, Colorado and Boulder Bar Associations
Languages Spoken
English
Spanish
Honors & Awards
University of Colorado School of Law Honors:
Order of the Coif
Dean’s List
Austin Scott Jr. Scholarship (awarded for academic excellence)
Fort Lewis College
Honors:
Dean’s List
National Collegiate Natural Sciences Award
Tri-Beta Biological Honor Society

Mark’s Blog

Commercial Real Estate Webinar Available
Partner, Mark Changaris, participated in a commercial real estate webinar hosted by BizWest. The webinar focused on the impacts the industry is seeing as a result of COVID-19 and what landlords and tenants should know. Changaris was joined by Damian Ederhoff, partner...

Do’s and Don’ts: Operating Agreements
Limited liability companies have many appealing qualities. Not least among them is flexibility regarding how governance, economic returns, allocations of profits and losses, and distributions can be structured. Subject to certain well-established rules,...

Changaris to Join BizWest Webinar
Partner, Mark Changaris, will be joining panelist, Damian L. Ederhoff, partner at Wipfli, in a BizWest webinar. The webinar will cover the impact commercial real estate has seen as a result of COIVD-19 and what landlords and tenants should know. As part of Mark's real...
In the News
Merritt Named Co-Chair of the Firm’s Trusts, Estates, Probate, and Tax Practice
Shelly Merritt, a partner at Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti, has been named the co-chair of the Firm's Trust, Estates, Probate, and Tax Practice. Merritt has over thirty years of experience representing individuals, families, closely-held businesses, executives, and...
BHGR Introduces the Women’s Leadership Committee
Just in time for Women's History Month, Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti LLP formed and formally introduced the BHGR Women's Leadership Committee. The Women's Leadership Committee is comprised of sixteen female attorneys and was established to recognize and cultivate a...
BHGR Partnership Expands with 2023 Elections
The Berg Hill Greenleaf Ruscitti partnership gathered at our Boulder office on January 31, 2023. In that meeting, attorneys Geoff Williamson and Benjamin Wilson were elected Equity Partners, and Elizabeth Froehlke and DJ Goldfarb were elected Non-Equity Partners,...
Firm Happenings
Updates in California Employment Law: Additional Requirements for Pay Data Reporting and Pay Transparency
Updates in California Employment Law: Additional Requirements for Pay Data Reporting and Pay Transparency On September 27, 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Senate Bill 1162 ("SB 1162"), expanding California's data reporting requirements under Government...
Client Alert: What Employers Must Convey Upon Employee Termination or Separation
Colorado's most recent legislative session, concluding in early May, pushed through several new employment-related laws that concern employers and employees alike. Senate Bill (SB) 22-234 should be of particular interest to employers, as it requires employers to...
Client Alert: Colorado Places New Restrictions on Non-Compete Agreements Between Employers and their Employees
Colorado has long disfavored non-compete agreements within the state. Historically, under C.R.S. § 8-2-113, restrictive covenants were void and unenforceable except for under specific circumstances, including: the purchase and sale of a business or the assets of a...