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Mark Colombell

Director

Tel: 804-698-6251
Fax: 804-780-1813
Email: mcolombell@t-mlaw.com

Mark Colombell joined ThompsonMcMullan in August 2003, after completing a one-year clerkship with the Hon. Michael C. Allen, Circuit Court Judge for Chesterfield County.

His practice includes representation of individuals, businesses, consumer financial institutions and local governments in a broad variety of matters. As a Director of the firm, Mr. Colombell’s practice focuses on consumer financial services, commercial litigation, construction law, landlord/tenant, personal injury, insurance and criminal defense.

Mr. Colombell has represented litigants across Virginia in cases involving issues as diverse as Fair Debt and Fair Credit Reporting defenses, will contests, homeowners’ association disputes, breach of contract, injunctions, personal injury, business torts, domestic relations and church disputes.

Mr. Colombell is a May 2002 graduate of the University of Richmond, T. C. Williams School of Law, where he served as the Notes and Comments Editor of the Richmond Journal of Law and Technology.

A native of Springfield, Virginia, Mr. Colombell attended James Madison University, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree from the College of Integrated Science and Technology in 1999.

He is a member of the Virginia State Bar, the Richmond Bar Association, the Association for Credit and Collection Professionals International (ACA), the Virginia Collectors Association (VCA) and the American Inns of Court. Mr. Colombell holds the rating of AV from Martindale Hubbell, the highest rating his peers can give him in terms of ethical standards and practice. He was named by his peers to Viginia Business magazine's Legal Elite list of attorneys in the area of Construction Law in 2009 and 2010.

Disclaimer: Case results depend upon a variety of factors uniques to each case. ThompsonMcMullan cannot guarantee or predict similar results in any future case taken by the attorney.

• Landes v. Cavalry Portfolio Services, LLC, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35467 (E.D. Va. 2011). Obtained dismissal with prejudice of a class action complaint affecting 91,000 class members.  The plaintiff sought class certification for an alleged Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) violation involving dunning letters offering “tax season savings.”  The plaintiff contended that the letters were deceptive, and thus violated the FDCPA, because the consumer would not actually have saved the stated amount due to potential income tax implications.  We successfully argued that had the collection agency dispensed tax advice as the plaintiff demanded, the collection agency would have been engaging in the unauthorized practice of law, a misdemeanor offense in Virginia. The Court further agreed that there is no requirement in the FDCPA that any such tax disclosure is required. This was a case of first impression within the Fourth Circuit.
• Katz v. Allied Interstate et al., 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25579 (E.D.Va. 2010). ACA International’s Mapbulletin newsletter lists this case as one of the top four Big Wins-Call Volume Cases in its 2010 Year in Review Litigation Trends. Mr. Colombell and Robert R. Musick successfully defended a national collection agency for alleged violations of state and federal laws.