About Mark Lawrence
Mark W. Lawrence is the elected District Attorney for Maine Prosecutorial District One which covers York County, home to one out of every seven Mainers.
A native of Kittery, Lawrence was first elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1988 becoming only the second Democrat elected from Kittery since the Civil War. In 1992, he won a seat in the Maine Senate from another overwhelmingly Republican district.
Elected Democratic leader after just one term, Lawrence helped Senate Democrats secure a majority in 1996. Lawrence was then twice unanimously selected by his colleagues to serve as Senate President. Term limited in 2000, he ran a credible challenge to incumbent US Senator Olympia Snowe.
Appointed in 2003 to fill a vacancy in the York County DA's position, Lawrence carried 26 of York's 29 communities and won a 60 percent victory in his first election to the post. He has since been twice reelected as DA.
Lawrence has a long record of public service, particularly on civil rights, civil justice and environmental protection. He was a member of the Youth Branch of the local NAACP, a volunteer with the Court Appointed Special Advocate program and a founder of the Laudholm Trust and the Wells Natural Estuarine Research Reserve.
As chair of the Legal Affairs and the Natural Resources committees in the Maine Legislature, he sponsored legislation improving justice for injured plaintiffs, equal rights regardless of sexual orientation and protection of Maine's outdoor environment.
As District Attorney, he created a special Domestic Violence Prosecution Team and expanded the Domestic Violence Court project. He fought to establish a Juvenile Fire Setters Diversion Program.
He is a member of the NAACP, the Maine Trial Lawyers Association and the American Association for Justice as well as a Director of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. Mark has served on the community advisory committee of the York County Community College. He is vice-president of the Kennebec-Chaudière Heritage Corporation and a member of the Franco-American Genealogical Society of York County.
The youngest of four sons of a former shipyard worker at the US navy yard in Kittery, Lawrence attended local public schools and worked his way through Bowdoin College and the University of Maine School of Law as a lobsterman and in local factories. He and his wife, Christina Cunningham, live with their two children in South Berwick.
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