Official Site of Mark Whitney - Fool For A Client: An Award-Winning Saga Of Litigation

BIO/RESUME
"The energy to live comes from the dark side.
It comes from everything that makes us suffer.
As we struggle against these negative powers,
we're forced to live more deeply, more fully."
~Robert McKee, Legendary Hollywood Writing Consultant
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   Mark Whitney is a performer, writer, producer and entrepreneur. He has studied with the San Francisco Comedy College and New York's American Comedy Institute. Mark tours his award-winning, one-man, political dramedy to sold-out venues internationally.
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   He is the Winner of the 2005 San Francisco Comedy Convention. At the 2007 IOWA THEATRE FESTIVAL, Mark decisively won BEST OVERALL PERFORMANCE when readers of the Des Moines Register gave him 20% of the vote in a 50 show field. At the 2007 D.C. THEATRE FESTIVAL in Washington, Mark won the coveted BEST SOLO PERFORMANCE in this 100 show festival. At the 2007 BOULDER INTERNATIONAL THEATRE FESTIVAL Mark’s show received the highest rating of the five most reviewed shows in a 75 show field. (31 reviews, averaging 4.75 stars out of 5.00)
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   In 2006 Mark founded the San Diego Comedy Co-op; a comedy theatre and workout room for Southern California comedians. Mark's favorite thing to do is perform his 90 minute one-man theatre show. However, he performs stand-up at New York's Broadway and Gotham Comedy Clubs; London's Comedy Cafe; Boston's Comedy Connection; Hollywood's Comedy Store, Improv and Laugh Factory, as well as other lesser known venues.
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   Mark is the only high school educated pro-se defendant in history to defeat the United States Department of Justice on three separate occasions in the the United States Court of Appeals. Significantly, one of Mark's appeals made so-called "new law" when, on April 13, 1993, then-Chief Judge Stephen Breyer of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (now on the U.S. Supreme Court) granted Mark's novel argument that the 1984 Federal Bail Reform Act compelled Federal courts to immediately release non-violent Federal criminal defendants from prison pending resentencing. Mark reversed the sentencing and detention related orders of Senior Federal District Judge Shane Devine on three occasions, prompting the court to note Mark's "considerable ingenuity and resourcefulness." In legal papers, the United States Attorney calls Mark "master litigator."

   From 1994-1996, Mark collaborated with noted defense attorney F. Lee Bailey in United States v. Roger Lussier. Among other things, Mark originated the legal argument that resulted in the reversal of a $426,000 restitution order against Lussier (a former bank president with an eighth grade education) when he discovered that the order entered at the Government's behest by Senior Federal District Judge Franklin S. Billings related to conduct for which Lussier was never charged or convicted. In Lyndonville Savings Bank v. Lussier, Mark also played a significant behind the scenes role in the reversal, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, of an $8 million civil judgment entered against Lussier in favor of his former bank employer. On the losing end of that appeal is the infamous Boston firm, Hale & Dorr, of A Civil Action fame.

   In 1995, Mark sought an injunction against United States Probation when it refused to allow him to have contact with convicted felons as a post-conviction consultant under the supervision of defense attorneys in Federal cases. United States District Judge William Sessions, refused to issue the injunction. He simply told Probation to leave Mark alone.
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   Mark founded and is president of TheLaw.net Corporation which competes in the market space dominated by WestLaw and Lexis; now in it's tenth year. Legal analysts have welcomed TheLaw.net as a much needed low-cost alternative to West and Lexis. Thousands of attorneys, judges, prosecutors and law professors from coast-to-coast and around the world rely on TheLaw.net to find answers to their toughest legal research questions. TheLaw.net is otherwise provided at no charge to several non-profit, pro-bono legal-aid offices around the country.
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   Another research company Mark co-founded in 1997, Advanced Internet Recruitment Strategies (AIRS), has since trained more than 55,000 corporate Americans, generated millions, and is considered the world leader in recruiter training and assessment programs.
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   In 1996, Mark was a candidate for the Vermont Senate. In 2005 he was elected to the Executive Committee of the California Libertarian Party and the Libertarian Party National Committee. Mark supports the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and is pro-choice on just about everything.
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   Mark is currently adapting his live theatre production for the page, screen and lecture circuit. The book and movie versions of Fool For A Client, will be available in theatres, stores and on the law and business school lecture circuits, respectively, in 2009.
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   Mark and his wife of 26 years, Julie, live in San Diego, California and South Hero, Vermont. The Whitneys have two good sons and three bad cats.