State and Federal Criminal Defense · Trials, Writs, and Appeals
Mark McBride
Trial Lawyer
A practice devoted exclusively to criminal defense. Mark McBride is a Certified Criminal Law Specialist who has taken criminal cases to trial in state and federal courts nationwide.
Board of Legal Specialization California Bar No.226684 PrincipalLaw Offices of Mark McBride, P.C.
Beverly Hills, California
The Practice
One kind of law, practiced at the highest level of preparation.
The Law Offices of Mark McBride, P.C. handles criminal matters only. No civil sideline, no family law, no volume caseload. That focus is deliberate: criminal defense — particularly federal criminal defense — is a discipline of its own, with its own rules of procedure, sentencing structure, and motion practice, and it rewards lawyers who live in it full time.
Mark is certified as a specialist in criminal law by the State Bar of California's Board of Legal Specialization — a credential held by a small fraction of California lawyers, requiring demonstrated trial experience, peer review, and a separate written examination beyond the bar exam.
Much of the firm's work is in the federal courts, including the United States District Court for the Central District of California, where the firm regularly litigates complex pretrial motions — suppression, dismissal, severance, and evidentiary challenges — and tries cases before juries.
- Federal DefenseDefense of federal indictments and investigations, from first appearance through trial and sentencing, with intensive pretrial motion practice.
- State DefenseFelony and serious misdemeanor defense in California state courts and, with local counsel where required, in state courts across the country.
- TrialsJury trials in state and federal criminal cases nationwide — not a referral practice, but a courtroom practice.
- MotionsSuppression and dismissal motions, severance, evidentiary litigation, and challenges to the government's case before a jury is ever seated.
- Writs & AppealsDirect appeals from state and federal convictions, state habeas corpus petitions, and federal habeas practice under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 and § 2255 — for clients whose cases didn't end the way they should have.
- SentencingFederal Sentencing Guidelines advocacy and mitigation, where preparation and credibility with the court matter most.
Trial Work
Tried to verdict, in courtrooms across the country.
Most criminal cases resolve short of trial — but they resolve on better terms when the government knows defense counsel is prepared to pick a jury. Mark has gone to trial in state and federal criminal cases nationwide, and that willingness to try cases shapes how every matter is worked up from day one: as if it will be the one the jury hears.
Federal Courts
United States District Courts, including the Central District of California — home district for the firm's federal practice.
State Courts
California Superior Courts and, with admission pro hac vice alongside local counsel, state courts in other jurisdictions.
Before & After Trial
Aggressive, research-driven motion practice before trial — and writs and appeals after it. The same command of the record that wins at trial is what wins post-judgment.
The Courtroom
Cross-examination, jury argument, and the judgment that comes only from having stood up in front of juries and verdicts.
Background
From Kansas City to the courtrooms of Los Angeles.
Mark was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, where he attended an all-boys college preparatory school. He went on to Marquette University in Milwaukee, completing its Honors Program in three years rather than four, and earned his law degree at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He was admitted to the Utah bar in 2001 and to the California bar in 2003, and is fluent in French and Spanish.
His practice has long included clients in the public eye. TheWrap named him in its “L.A. Law: A Who’s Who of Celebrity Attorneys” — a roundup of the lawyers Hollywood turns to in high-profile criminal matters — noting his preference for quiet resolutions, his policy of treating well-known clients like normal people, and his refusal to charge them more simply because they are famous.
- EducationMarquette University, Honors Program (completed in three years) · J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, J.D.
- AdmissionsUtah, 2001 · California, 2003
- LanguagesEnglish · French (fluent) · Spanish (fluent)
- In the PressProfiled in TheWrap’s “L.A. Law: A Who’s Who of Celebrity Attorneys,” among Los Angeles’s go-to lawyers for celebrity and high-profile criminal cases.
Approach
Plain answers, flat fees, and the lawyer you hired in the courtroom.
People facing criminal charges are making the most consequential decisions of their lives, usually under pressure and often for the first time. They deserve a lawyer who explains the case in plain language, tells them the truth about its strengths and weaknesses, and is candid about what each path — trial, motion, or negotiated resolution — actually means for them.
When you retain the firm, you retain Mark. The client's case is not handed down to an associate, and the strategy is built with the client, not announced to them.
Flat fees, in writing
The firm works on a flat-fee basis under a written agreement that complies with California's professional-responsibility rules, so clients know the cost of their defense at the outset — no hourly meter running through the most stressful months of their lives.
Direct communication
Straight talk over legal jargon. Clients get candid assessments, prompt responses, and a clear picture of where the case stands at every stage.
Contact
If you or someone you love is under investigation or charged, the time to call is now.
Early decisions in a criminal case — what to say, what not to say, whether to talk to agents at all — can shape everything that follows. Consultations are confidential and protected by the attorney–client privilege, whether or not the firm is retained.
The firm accepts criminal matters in California and, in appropriate cases, in state and federal courts in other jurisdictions.
- Firm
- Law Offices of Mark McBride, P.C.
- Office
- 468 N. Camden Drive, Ste. 225
Beverly Hills, CA 90210 - Phone
- 310-880-7120
- mcbridelaw@gmail.com
- Bar No.
- California 226684