Mark Tarango

About Mark

Marcos ”Mark“ Tarango, leader of DTO Law’s transactions team, specializes in complex commercial, real estate and financial transactions. Mark combines over twenty-five years of in-house and AmLaw 100 law firm experience to deliver practical business-minded legal advice to his clients. He represents banks, non-bank financing companies, auto manufacturers and auto captives, real estate owners/developers and technology companies, among others. Mark’s practice includes representing clients in a wide range of transactions, including: Lending: hundreds of real estate finance, personal property and inventory finance, syndicated and participated loans (lender-side representation) Real Estate: commercial real estate leasing (landlord-side and tenant-side representation), real estate acquisition/dispositions, condominium and fractional ownership law, timeshare and hotel development Equipment Lease and Finance Loan Workouts and Loan Restructuring Complex Commercial Transactions: on-shore and off-shore outsourcing transactions, SAAS agreements, consulting agreements, multi-million business process outsourcing transactions and technology licensing agreements Prior to co-founding DTO Law, Mark spent fourteen years as Managing Counsel at Toyota Motor Credit Corporation. While in-house, he advised senior management on legal and business matters on a day-to-day basis and he oversaw a team of attorneys, paralegals and staff supporting nearly $20 billion in commercial contracts. Mark was responsible for drafting and negotiating transactions involving various strategic initiatives and partnerships, consumer product launches, new-technology development, supplier arrangements and inventory/real estate/construction loans (including distressed and troubled assets). Mark was also divisional General Counsel at Toyota for its $2 billion equipment finance division. With that experience, Mark has developed a deep understanding of the automobile, mobility and leasing markets and continues to advise on a broad spectrum of risk issues within those markets. Mark is also a thought leader in legal efficiencies and brings that mentality to all of his matters, large and small. Among his notable accomplishments, while in-house, Mark led a company-wide process realignment to shift low-cost repetitive legal operations work from the legal department into the business, which resulted in $500,000 in annual cost savings to the client. Mark also led the rollout of new master service agreement modular contracts and smart-tools intake forms for use by business which drove costs down. Mark proudly helped establish a diverse law firm legal-spend initiative while in-house, and he has served as an Adjunct Professor at UCLA Law School, where he co-developed the UCLA Corporate In-House Clinic. The Corporate In-House Clinic provides students with live-client clinical work, focusing on private and public corporate experiences.

Practice Areas

Business Law Insights

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Education

• University of California Los Angeles, J.D., graduated 1997
• University of California - Los Angeles, B.A., Political Science, with honors

Bar Admissions

• California, The State Bar of California
• Washington, Washington State Bar Association
• Arizona, State Bar of Arizona

Languages