• Drake Law School

• Member, ABA Jury Voir Dire Implicit Bias Project (2013-2014)
• Elected member of the American Law Institute (2013)
• Founding Member, Advisory Board for The Journal of Technology Law & Policy, University of Florida – September, 2010
• Member Budget Subcommittee overseeing a nearly billion-dollar budget, funding the federal public defender organizations and the CJA (court appointed lawyer) programs nationwide
• Chair, Civil Justice Reform Act of 1990 Advisory Group, United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa -- 1991 (appointed by Chief Judge Harold D. Vietor – resigned following appointment as United States magistrate judge) following appointment as United States magistrate judge)
• American Bar Association * - Appointed: Secretary, American Bar Association, Labor and Employment Law Section (2012-2013)
• Association of Trial Lawyers of America - Member, Constitutional Challenge Committee, 1988-89
• Iowa State Bar Association * - Chair, Iowa State Bar Association Labor and Employment Law Section (2011-2012); Member, Federal Practice Committee, 1993-98; Co-Chair, Federal Practice Seminar (sponsored by Federal Practice Section) Des Moines, Iowa, 1993; Chair, Professional Development Committee, Litigation Section, 1990-98; Member, Labor and Employment Law Section Council, 1992-95; Co-Chair, Committee on Professionalism, 1992-98; Co-Chair, Labor and Employment Law Seminar (sponsored by Labor and Employment Law Section), Amana Colonies, Iowa, 1992. Member, Committee on Professionalism, 1990-92. Member, Litigation Section, 1990-98, Member, Labor and Employment Law Section, 1990-98; Chair, Labor and Employment Law Seminar (sponsored by Labor and 5 Employment Law Section), Des Moines, Iowa, 1989; Co-Chair, Labor and Employment Law Seminar (sponsored by Labor and
  Employment Law Section), Des Moines, Iowa, 1989; * Indicates current membership; Member, Labor Law Committee, 1988-89; Member, Committee on Legal Aid, 1985-88; Member, Study Committee on Women and Minorities' Involvement in Bar Association and Judicial System of Iowa, 1987-89; Member, Executive Council, Young Lawyers Section, 1985-86; Member, Silent Partner Program Committee, Young Lawyers Section, 1984-86: Member, Committee on Federal Practice Manual, Young Lawyers Section; Member, Committee on State Adoption of Federal Rules of Evidence, Young Lawyers Section, 1982-83.
• Iowa Trial Lawyers Association - Elected, Board of Governors, 1988-89, 1990-91; Member, Amicus Curiae Committee, 1989-91; Co-Chair, Constitutional Law Committee, 1987-89; Co-Chair, Amicus Curiae Committee, 1986-88
• Polk County Bar Association - Member, Professional Ethics and Conduct Committee, 1987-90; Member, Pro Bono Committee, 1985-87 
• Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers - Inducted (by invitation – limited to 250 trial lawyers), 1985
• Federal Magistrate Judges Association
• Federal Judges Association*
• National Employment Lawyers Association
• First Amendment Lawyers Association Blackstone Inn of Court*
• Iowa Judges Association
• Woodbury County Bar Association*
• Distinguished Service Award, The American Board of Trial Advocates – Iowa Chapter, September, 1999
  
  Distinguished Service Award, Association of Trial Lawyers of Iowa, 1991
• Founding member, Masters of the Bench, Blackstone Inn of Court (1989)
• “AV” rating by Martindale-Hubbell
•  

Hon. Mark W. Bennett (Ret.) was appointed by President Clinton as a United States District Judge, Northern District of Iowa for 24 years (1994 –2019). He was Chief Judge from 2000-2006. Judge Bennett also served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the S.D. of Iowa from 1991-1994. Judge Bennett sat by designation by the appointment of Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court on both the 8th and 9th Circuits and in the districts of Arizona, Idaho, M.D. of Fla., Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan),and the S.D. of Iowa on more than 700 cases.

Judge Bennett is an active scholar having published more than 25 law review articles in the past nine years at law reviews at Alabama, American, Cardozo, Florida, Harvard, Iowa, Northwestern,Texas, U.C. Davis, U.C.L.A., and Yale, etc. He has also published dozens of other articles in various legal periodicals. He was for many years a co-author on a treatise on employment law. His over 1000 published judicial opinions are widely noted for his dedication to keen
legal scholarship.

He has has taught at the Drake University Law School, University of Iowa College of Law, University of Nebraska College of Law, University of Hawaii William S. Richardson College of Law, and the University of Florida Levin College of Law. He has also visited several other law school as a visiting jurist in residence. He is a judical fellow for the NYU Civil Jury Project where he trains state and federal trial judges on jury trial innovations and is an adjuct professor for the National Judicial College.

Judge Bennett started his own law firm upon graduation from the Drake University Law School and argued his first case in the U.S. Supreme Court when he was less that four years out of law school and had three more cert. petitions granted before he was 32. As a trial lawyer, Judge Bennett appeared in more than two dozen federal district courts, several of the courts of appeals and several state trial and appellate courts, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court.

Judge Bennett is a highly sought after CLE speaker and has spoken at more than 500 programs in 41 states and several foreign countries and many state and federal judicial conferences. Judge Bennett has been extremely active in both the Iowa and American Bar Association and held leadership positions in both. He has educated more than 4000 state and federal judges on topics ranging from implicit bias in the courtroom to sentencing, case management, and jury trial innovations.

His national experience and perspective acquired in over four decades of private practice, judging at both the trial and appellate levels, law teaching, legal scholarship, and lecturing makes him exceptionallyıqualified to assist parties and their counsel in resolving disputes.