Mark T. Baker

Mark Baker is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers and a former federal prosecutor. He handles trials and appeals in complex cases. Mark is listed in The Best Lawyers in America in the categories of Personal Injury Litigation - Plaintiffs and Commercial Litigation, in Chambers USA in the categories of Litigation: General Commercial and Litigation: White Collar & Government Investigations, and as a Southwest Super Lawyer.

Mark served as Chair of the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the District of New Mexico from 2010 through 2022. He was Vice Chair of the New Mexico Civil Rights Commission from 2019-2020, and he has testified as an expert before the legislature on the New Mexico Civil Rights Act, anti-paramilitary legislation, judicial compensation, and public safety.

Mark joined the firm after serving as an Assistant United States Attorney. During his time as a federal prosecutor, he had primary responsibility for prosecuting all criminal civil rights cases in New Mexico and was lead counsel in jury trials involving a range of violent felonies that occurred on reservations and Pueblos within the district. He has argued and briefed civil and criminal cases before the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the New Mexico Supreme Court, and the New Mexico Court of Appeals.

Mark regularly teaches as an adjunct professor at the University of New Mexico School of Law. Each spring, he co-teaches with Judge Linda Vanzi (ret.) either Civil Rights Litigation or state constitutional law on a rotating basis basis. Mark also has taught Federal Jurisdiction and Advanced Evidence & Trial Practice, and he helps teach Evidence & Trial Practice every fall semester.

Mark began his career as a law clerk to United States District Judge Bruce D. Black. He then was an associate with Morrison & Foerster LLP, in Denver, Colorado, and associate and later partner with Long, Pound & Komer, P.A. in his hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico.

A 2002 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, Mark served on the editorial board of the Virginia Law Review and published a note in that journal in the field of federal Indian law.