Mark W. Bennett

Mark grew up in India, Thailand, and Germany, and adopted Houston when he started at Rice University at sixteen. He has been a criminal defense lawyer since 1995.

He is Board Certified in both Criminal Law and Criminal Appellate Law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. Very few Texas lawyers hold one of those certifications. Almost none hold both.

Trial lawyer

Mark tries serious criminal cases to juries in Harris County and across Texas. In 1999 he attended the Trial Lawyers College in Dubois, Wyoming. He has studied psychodrama, improvisational theater, and hypnosis, all in service of becoming more persuasive. His particular interest is jury selection: he believes cases are often won or lost in the first twenty-nine seconds before the jury.

Appellate lawyer

Mark has won cases in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the Texas Supreme Court, the Georgia Supreme Court, and the Fifth Circuit. In seven recent cases before the Court of Criminal Appeals, he won on seven different legal issues.

More about our appellate practice. His favorite appellate subject is free-speech law.

Teacher

Mark teaches jury selection, ethics, and constitutional criminal law at CLE programs across the country. He has served as President of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association and received the Charles D. Butts Award from the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.

Off the clock

Mark performs with an improv troupe and, for a hobby, takes things apart, makes them better, and puts them back together. He and Jennifer met in law school in 1992. They have two children and two dogs.

Bar admissions

Supreme Court of Texas · Supreme Court of Colorado · Southern, Northern, Eastern, and Western Districts of Texas · Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals · Supreme Court of the United States

Education

University of Houston Law Center (1995) · Rice University (1992) · Trial Lawyers College, Dubois, Wyoming (1999)