Mark was elected to Parliament in 2007 as the Member for Isaacs. He studied Arts and Law at the University of Melbourne. He practised law as a solicitor and from 1987 as a barrister. In 1999 he was appointed Queen’s Counsel.
A former Director of the Law Council of Australia. Mark also served on the Victorian Bar Council and the Victorian Bar Ethics Committee.
Mark served as Cabinet Secretary and Assistant Minister for Climate Change in the Gillard Government, and later as Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Management, Minister for the Public Service and Integrity and as Special Minister of State in the Gillard and second Rudd Governments.
In July 2013 Mark led Australia’s winning case against Japan’s whaling regime at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Since September 2013 Mark has served as Shadow Attorney-General in the Federal Labor Opposition.
Mark and his wife Deborah have three children.
Mark is the son of a composer and a teacher. His father came to Australia as a refugee from Germany at the age of eleven having fled from the Nazi regime.
Mark is a passionate but long-suffering member of the St Kilda Football club and enjoys cycling, swimming and spending time with his family.
