MARK L. TUFT

After graduating from Hastings Law School during the height of the Vietnam War, Womble Bond Dickinson partner Mark L. Tuft passed the California Bar exam and jumped into action by joining the United States Army and becoming a member of the Judge Advocate General Corps.

“It was when I was in the service I really got my litigation experience,” Tuft said. “I tried many court-martial cases and for every conceivable crime committed by mankind.”

JAG lawyers can be prosecutors one day and defense attorneys another. Tuft also served as a military judge overseas.

Tuft is a legal malpractice specialist and a partner in the firm’s business litigation group. He received an LLM degree from George Washington University school of law and teaches regularly for all major legal education providers as well as law firms, corporate law departments and government agencies.

“For years, I have been outside counsel to lawyers, law firms, corporations, government, and private organizations on what is commonly characterized as the law governing lawyers,” Tuft said. “I’m often contacted when lawyers have complex ethical issues and professional liability problems and they need someone to help resolve them.”

In certain cases, Tuft also serves as a consultant and expert witness. His areas of practice include first amendment and media law, and defense against legal malpractice. In disputes among attorneys and law firms, he also acts as an arbitrator and mediator and sometimes as a special master.

He provides legal ethics opinions on various challenging malpractice and conflict issues, and law firms retain him on law firm mergers and dissolutions and to determine whether associating with a group of attorneys or a firm may result in conflicts of interest which could be potentially disqualifying.

Tuft is the 2022 recipient of the California Lawyers Association Harry B. Sondheim Professional Responsibility Award for his long-term work in advancing attorney professional standards in California. He is an original author of the Rutter Group’s practice guide on professional responsibility and liability. It is “a very good source of the law governing lawyers in California, which we update every year,” he said.

Finally, Tuft co-chairs a national group of experts that is exploring and teaching about the law and ethics of “NewLaw,” such as alternative ways to deliver services.

“It’s a very, very broad practice,” he said.

– Douglas Saunders