Mark Sigmon
Partner
“Plaintiffs deserve the same credentialed, experienced, and powerful lawyers that corporate defendants have.”
About Mark | Partner & Chair, Appellate
After graduating first in his class from Duke Law and clerking for two years on the Fifth Circuit, Mark began his career in business litigation, building a foundation in how complex cases are developed and defended. Over time, he made a deliberate shift toward plaintiffs’ work. It was a choice shaped by a simple conviction: individuals and employees deserve the same caliber of legal representation that well-resourced corporate defendants expect as a matter of course.
Today, as a Partner at Lee Segui, Mark focuses on appellate advocacy, class actions, employment, civil rights, and consumer protection litigation. His work often centers on briefing and arguing dispositive motions, class certification issues, and appeals—moments in a case where the law and the record have to come together as part of a cohesive story. And Mark believes that every case has, at its core, a simple story. His goal is to understand the law and the facts so thoroughly that he can distill down that story and then tell it in a way that anyone can quickly and easily understand.
Mark is certified by the North Carolina State Bar as a specialist in appellate practice. He also serves on the Fourth Circuit’s Criminal Justice Act Panel, through which he handles appeals for indigent criminal defendants.
In recent years, Mark has successfully defended class certification on appeal in the face of novel arguments under Supreme Court precedent, defended jury verdicts valued at more than $10 million on appeal, and secured reversals in cases involving complex interstate privilege disputes and employee commissions practices affecting software sales professionals. His appellate work has shaped the trajectory of numerous employment, consumer, and class action matters.
In 2026, the National Civil Justice Institute gave Mark its annual Appellate Advocacy Award. The nationwide award recognized his work preserving access to justice via class actions in Lytle v. Nutramax, 114 F.4th 1011 (9th Cir. 2024).
Mark’s undergraduate degree is from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he double-majored in physics and medieval history—so it should be obvious which basketball team he supports. He lives in downtown Raleigh with his wife, Jen, and their three children, Fred, Imogene, and Augustus. Mark is an avid vegetable gardener, with a special love for tomatoes, and he is currently getting his eldest child into scuba diving.
- 2026: Al Dajih et al. v. Builders Firstsoucre (N.C. Court of Appeals) Secured affirmance of order concluding that non-signatory to arbitration agreement could not use equitable estoppel to force plaintiffs into arbitration. The case is a class action about European lumber that was used as a one-to-one substitute for North American lumber in home construction, even though it’s not nearly as strong.
- 2026: Corotoman v. Central West Virginia Regional Airport Authority (4th Cir. & W. Va. Supreme Court) Secured reversal of bench trial finding that there were zero in damages in multimillion-dollar contract claim brought by landowner against municipal airport, by convincing courts that the common law gross disproportionality/waste doctrine was misapplied by the trial court. Case is still pending.
- 2024: Lytle v. Nutramax Laboratories, Inc. (9th Cir.) Secured affirmance of class certification in the face of a complex argument that damages models had to be run, not just designed, before a class can be certified. Opposed certiorari in the Supreme Court, which was denied. Case later settled.
- 2024: Godun v. JustAnswer LLC (9th Cir.) Secured affirmance of a denial of a motion to compel arbitration under cutting-edge law regarding when internet users are bound by the terms of click-wrap agreements when they sign into a website or app. Case later settled.
- 2024: MeTV (7th Cir.) Secured reversal of a dismissal of a claim under the Video Privacy Protection Act, a 1980’s-era statute that can be used in the internet age to protect the privacy of consumers’ personal information, and which is the subject of nationwide cases all over the map. Case later settled.
- 2024 Vlassis v. Adient (N.C. Court of Appeals) Secured reversal of dismissal for lack of personal jurisdiction, in case involving catastrophic injury caused by defective passenger seat in car, after briefing rapidly-evolving federal due process law about interstate personal jurisdiction issues.
- 2022: Kingston v. IBM (9th Cir.) Secured affirmance of vast majority of $14 million+ jury trial verdict, over a dissent, in favor a former IBM sales representative who was retaliated against for complaining about wage theft and racial discrimination. Case later settled.
- 2021: Chisum v. Campagna (N.C. Supreme Court) Secured affirmance of all the good parts of a multimillion-dollar jury verdict in favor of a commercial real estate developer against his former partners, while also getting reversal of the only bad parts of that verdict. Case later settled just before re-trial.
- 2020: Fessler v. IBM Corp. (4th Cir.) Secured reversal of a dismissal of claims by a former IBM salesperson that IBM underpaid him in commissions, using novel legal theory and in the teeth of decades of IBM prevailing against its salespersons on similar claims. Case later settled, and precedent led to many more individual and class cases by Mark and co-counsel against IBM on behalf of IBM salespeople. Mark briefed the motions to dismiss and for summary judgment in all of those cases.
- 2020: Plantation Building of Wilmington, Inc. v. Town of Leland (N.C. Supreme Court) Convinced the North Carolina Supreme Court, in an appeal involving class certification of claims about illegal municipal impact fees, not to apply the “one-way intervention” doctrine to overturn class certification.
- 2013: Brown v. Town of Cary (4th Cir.) Represented a homeowner in a First Amendment appeal challenging the Town of Cary’s enforcement of its sign ordinance in an ACLU-supported pro bono matter. The client had spray-painted “Screwed by the Town of Cary” on his house, leading to nationwide press coverage. The client’s legal position ultimately prevailed in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Other Significant Matters
- AME Church Retirement Litigation In a large MDL where pastors of a church had been robbed of more than $100 million of their retirement funds in a church retirement plan, Mark was the primary draftsman on briefing the dispositive motions, class certification, and other key issues. Case resulted in more than $100 million in settlements and the pastors being made mostly whole.
- IBM Sales Commission Litigation Prepared dispositive motion briefing in more than 30 cases challenging IBM’s sales commission practices.
- SAS Institute Inc. v. World Programming Ltd. (E.D.N.C.) Represented English software company in complex international dispute regarding copyright and contract with large North Carolina-based software company.
- AME Church Retirement Litigation In a large MDL where pastors of a church had been robbed of more than $100 million of their retirement funds in a church retirement plan, Mark was the primary draftsman on briefing the dispositive motions, class certification, and other key issues. Case resulted in more than $100 million in settlements and the pastors being made mostly whole.
- IBM Sales Commission Litigation Prepared dispositive motion briefing in more than 30 cases challenging IBM’s sales commission practices.
- SAS Institute Inc. v. World Programming Ltd. (E.D.N.C.) Represented English software company in complex international dispute regarding copyright and contract with large North Carolina-based software company.
- Martindale-Hubbell AV-rated (highest possible rating)
- N.C. Super Lawyers (and Top 100 Lawyers in N.C.)
- North Carolina Magazine Legal Elite
- 2026 National Civil Justice Institute Appellate Advocacy Award
- American Association for Justice
- North Carolina Advocates for Justice
- Fourth Circuit Criminal Justice Act Panel Member
- North Carolina Bar Association Appellate Section Council
