Professional Biography
Mark Lane has practiced law for more than half a century. In addition to his work in the courtroom, he has appeared as trial counsel in major cases in United States District Courts and State Courts in more than thirty different states and jurisdictions. He has drafted legislation for the United States Congress and the New York State Legislature, where he served as an elected member. Mr. Lane has also analyzed the legal system as an author, playwright, screenwriter, teacher, lecturer and filmmaker. His books, plays, films, courses, and lectures have all focused upon contemporary legal questions.
Lawyer
Mr. Lane is considered to be an expert in the area of defamation law. He has prevailed in important defamation cases, whether representing the plaintiff or defendant. As defense counsel, he has defeated in a trial in the federal court in Florida, CIA officer and Watergate figure E. Howard Hunt; he also won a significant victory against columnist William F. Buckley, Jr., in the United States District Court in Washington, D.C. His arguments before the United States Supreme Court in a case involving Jack Anderson helped to establish the law of defamation in the United States. In that instance Mr. Lane represented the plaintiff. Major law firms have called upon Mr. Lane to offer expert reports to the court and testimony in pending cases regarding the law of defamation and the application of the law to specific fact scenarios. Recently, two law firms facing malpractice actions have relied upon his expertise in their motions for summary judgment.
Mr. Lane represented the American Indian Movement at the historic Wounded Knee trial, which he won. Following the trial, the United States District Court judge who had tried the case said, "Mark Lane is the finest investigative lawyer in America."
He has tried numerous important cases establishing the rights of minorities to serve on juries and grand juries (in New York State) and to utilize public facilities (in Jackson, Mississippi). In the latter case, Mr. Lane (who remains the only public official ever arrested as a Freedom Rider for challenging the unlawful actions of the Mississippi State authorities) won a precedent establishing victory as the charges against him were dismissed by the State of Mississippi.
In an important federal case against a television network, Mr. Lane helped to establish the law against sexual harassment a decade before the United States Senate considered the Anita Hill allegations.
Mr. Lane drafted the legislation which resulted in the establishment of the House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations, which investigated the murders of President Kennedy and Dr. King.
Mr. Lane is a member of the New York State Bar and the Bar of the District of Columbia. He is also a member of the Bar of the United States Supreme Court and has been admitted to practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, 9th Circuit, 11th Circuit, 5th Circuit, 4th Circuit, 6th Circuit and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. He has been admitted pro hac vice in more than half of the states of the United States.
Legal Ethics
For years, Mr. Lane represented two Black graphic artists who were the victims of employment discrimination by a major television network. He discovered substantial misconduct by the network and its powerful and influential law firm, which he documented and brought to the attention of the Federal Court. The trial judge, a United States District Court judge, stated that he "extended his commendation to Mr. Lane for obtaining exceptional results for his clients in this case against a powerful opponent. Counsel contributed to the development of the law of sanctions in this Circuit and served the court in the highest tradition of the bar."
Legislator, Teacher, Lecturer
Mr. Lane served in the New York State Legislature, was an executive assistant to a United States Congressman, and functioned as a campaign manager for New York City for Senator John F. Kennedy when he ran for president in 1960. Mr. Lane has lectured widely throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. He has appeared at hundreds of law schools, universities and colleges and often to the largest attendance for a lecture at the educational institution. "Time" magazine called him "One of the three most popular lecturers in the U.S." He has spoken before the American Bar Association's annual convention and national conference of the Associated Press Writers association.
Mr. Lane taught law courses at the law school at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Author, Playwright and Screenwriter
Mark Lane has written nine books on contemporary legal questions. His first book, Rush to Judgment, a critique of the Warren Commission Report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, was the number one best-selling book in the United States in hardcover in 1966 and the number one best-selling book in paperback in the following year. It was a best-seller in 23 other countries at that time as well. A decade later it was again released in the United States and again became a best-seller. Due to continuing demand, it was again republished during 1992. The book, an overwhelming popular success, changed the way people in the United States and elsewhere viewed the facts surrounding the death of President Kennedy. The book is used as a text at various police academies as the classic approach to the examination of a crime.
Among Mr. Lane's other books are an analysis of the facts surrounding the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., written with Dick Gregory, (Code Name Zorro, republished in 1992 as Murder in Memphis); an evaluation of the inner workings of the news media (A Citizen's Dissent); and a presentation of the facts surrounding the Jonestown massacre (The Strongest Poison).
Plausible Denial, Mr. Lane's latest book, was also a New York Times best-seller for three months during 1992. It focused upon the defamation trial of E. Howard Hunt against a newspaper which had implicated the CIA in the assassination of President Kennedy. Mr. Lane represented the publication and won the case. The book includes a treatise on defamation law.
Mr. Lane's book Arcadia demonstrated that James Richardson, a man convicted by the State of Florida for the murder of his seven children and then on death row, was innocent. While Mr. Lane had not represented Mr. Richardson at the trial, subsequently, at Mr. Lane's request the State of Florida re-examined the case. The governor appointed Janet Reno, then a Florida State prosecutor to conduct an inquiry. She joined in Mr. Lane's successful petition to free James Richardson. Mr. Lane has also written a screenplay based upon that case and his investigation.
Mr. Lane wrote the screenplay for the film Executive Action, which starred Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Will Geer. Mr. Lane produced and appeared in the award-winning documentary film Rush to Judgment, hailed by a leading French cinematic magazine as "America's finest film of the decade." Mr. Lane directed, appeared in and produced the documentary film Two Men in Dallas. Mr. Lane's book, Conversations with Americans, a work critical of the U.S. military excesses in Vietnam, published in 1970 (based upon interviews conducted by Mr. Lane in the United States, Sweden, Denmark, France, Germany and Great Britain), was adapted for a film which was awarded first prize at the Leipzig International Documentary Film Festival.
Mr. Lane is the author of the plays The Trial of James Earl Ray and The Winds of Doctrine. Winds of Doctrine will be presented by the Met Theatre in Los Angeles. He has written the screenplay Plausible Denial, which has been optioned a major filmmaker. He is also the screenwriter of Slay the Dreamer, which is about to be produced as a major film.
Historic Figure
His work has been praised by contemporary figures from Norman Mailer: "An heroic and historic contribution;" to Bertrand Russell: "Lane's work (Rush to Judgment) is greater than Zola in the Dreyfuss case, comprises one of the most remarkable documents I have seen and is an unanswerable indictment to the Government's attempt to suppress the truth;" to historian Arnold Toynbee, who said "Lane's work is an unchallengeable and significant contribution to history." Mr. Lane was active in the Civil Rights movement beginning in the 1950's.
As a post-graduate law student, he successfully challenged New York University when that institution insisted upon requiring its prospective students to list their race and religion. As an attorney, he successfully challenged the special jury system in New York City, a system which systematically excluded Blacks and Puerto Ricans from serving as jurors.
Mr. Lane was arrested along with Percy Sutton as a Freedom Rider. At the time Mr. Lane was a member of the New York State Legislature.
During the war in Viet Nam, Mr. Lane served as general counsel for anti-war groups at U.S. Air Force and Army bases in the United States and Europe and successfully represented scores of G.I.'s who were prosecuted for expressing their political views. While a member of the New York State Legislature, he successfully exposed Governor Nelson Rockefeller's "fall-out shelter program" as a hoax and discovered that the Speaker of the assembly was profiting from the bill. His efforts saved the state the $100 million which had previously been appropriated and also resulted in creating, for the first time, a viable Code of Ethics for members of the legislature. When he discovered that guards at a New York institution for retarded persons were torturing, starving and imprisoning children who were being illegally incarcerated, his campaign, later joined by the New York press, led to the discharge of numerous guards, the prosecution of some, the establishment of decent standards and the release of many hundreds of children.
Radio Commentator
During 2004 Mark Lane was asked by the the first radio station in New Jersey, WSNJ-AM, to appear as a guest to be interviewed for one hour. The response among the audience was so overwhelming that Lane was asked to return the next week and then again the following week. Lane was then offered his own program, "Lane's Law."
There was a question about how his politically hard-hitting (although always polite) approach would be received by a large and very conservative audience. Lane began each program by reading "The single most important sentence in American history – The First Amendment" and invited callers of all views to feel free to express them on the air. Could that program survive in what many had called a religiously based right-wing community on a station which reflected that approach to local and national policies? That question was answered when within three weeks "Lane's Law" became the most popular program in South Jersey.
Lane opposed the war in Iraq, exposed the administration's continuing misconduct, evaluated the case against Tom Delay a year before he was indicted, arranged for the return from Iraq of a local honor student who had enlisted in the Marine Corps the day after 9/11 and whose brother had just been killed in the war. When the government refused to act, Lane's audience deluged the local and national politicians and within two days the young man was on his way home.
When Lane learned that Provo, Utah had a statute that prohibited anyone from owning a cat and a dog and that a woman had sought to adopt a cat for her child but was refused because she owned a dog, he called the Mayor of Provo, members of the City Council and then initiated a nationwide campaign leading to an avalanche of the telephone calls and email to the city's leaders. Lane said that although issue was almost humorous, the fact is that thousands of unwanted and abandoned cats and dogs are killed each year and someone offering a good home to a pet should not be denied. Within three days the Mayor called Lane offering a good home to a pet should not be denied. The Mayor asked him to dictate a new law, which the City Council passed immediately and unanimously. Lane's comment to his audience, "if you can change the law in Provo, Utah from South Jersey, you have the power to make greater changes in policy in Washington as well."
Before long, callers from throughout the area, and the entire country ("Lane's Law" streams on the Internet throughout the world) made the show the most popular program in the history of the station.
Reference works which provide further information about Mark Lane include various annual volumes of:
- Who's Who in the World
- Who's Who in America
- Who's Who in the East
- Contemporary Authors
- Who's Who in the Law
- Encyclopedia Brittanica Year Book
- Who's Who in U.S.
- Writers, Editors and Poets