Mark Bennett is a criminal-defense lawyer who has practiced law in Texas and federal courts since 1995. He’s Board Certified® in Criminal Law since 2012, when he received the Texas Board of Legal Specialization’s Certificate in Criminal Law.

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Mark was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1970. He grew up overseas (in New Delhi, India and Bangkok, Thailand) and in the Washington, D.C. area. After graduating from the American Embassy School in New Delhi, he moved to Houston to study political science and Religious Studies at Rice University, where he was an honor roll student. He graduated from Rice in 1992 with a bachelors degree in Religious Studies and began law school at the University of Houston Law Center (where he met Jennifer).

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In law school, Mark was known as a person who (in the words of one professor) “goes right up to the line … then leans way over.” He finished the three-year program in two and a half years and took the Texas bar exam in November 1994. When the bar results came back in May 1995, he received his law license and opened his practice. For the first couple of years he accepted cases other than criminal defense. He represented people in divorces and personal injury cases, as well as writing wills and contracts. Because his heart was set on a criminal defense practice, he eliminated the other types of cases from his practice and focused on the defense of people accused of crimes.

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Since then Mark has tried felony and misdemeanor cases successfully in state courts across Texas, and in federal courts across the United States. He has also successfully represented many people on appeal in both state and federal courts, and on habeas in state courts..

 

Mark Bennett has a reputation for defending his clients with compassion, intelligence, and imagination. In continuing legal education programs, he has taught his fellow criminal defense lawyers about many topics related to their practice. He has also taught criminal trial advocacy (that is, how to try criminal cases) to law students at the University of Houston Law Center and at South Texas College of Law.

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Mark is dedicated to providing the best possible defense to those accused. To that end, in 1999 he attended the Trial Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyoming, spending five weeks on Gerry Spence’s ranch to hone his trial skills. When he graduated, he joined a select group of trial lawyers across the country who have discovered a new, better way to represent people. To his Trial Lawyers College training, Mark has added extensive training in psychodrama, improvisational theater, and hypnosis.

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It is in part because of this training that Mark is rated 10/10 by Avvo.com, and is AV rated by Martindale-Hubbell. More important to him than these superb ratings, though, are the glowing reviews his former clients give him.