Mark M. Gonzalez is an attorney in private practice in New Orleans. He has been practicing for over fifteen years - including "Of Counsel" with the local firm of Scheuermann & Jones - on the 18^th floor of the FNBC Bank Building. His practice ranges from personal injury to criminal defense, civil rights, employment discrimination, as well as AIDS related, film production and products liability law.

Mark was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1954, and lived in the Chicago area for 18 years, first moving to the Los Angeles area, then New Orleans, back to Santa Cruz, and finally returning to New Orleans over 15 years ago. Mark graduated from Loyola Law School in 1985, after two undergraduate years at Tulane and three at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He graduated from U.C. Santa Cruz with two degrees: Sociology and Psychobiology. He was president of the local National Lawyers Guild chapter during law school. He is a member of the American Bar Association, National Lawyers Guild, American Trial Lawyers Association, S.P.C.A. and L.I.S.A. (both are animal right organizations).

After Santa Cruz Mark returned to New Orleans as a VISTA volunteer. Volunteering has stayed with him, as a founding organizer of "GAY-FEST" (now PRIDE) and founding member of AIDSLaw of Louisiana. He has been on the Board of Directors for United Services for AIDS, and the Bywater Community Development Corporation. He volunteered extensively with ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power).

Mark lives in the Bywater neighborhood, outside of the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana. He has several outside interests including a coffee catering business along with community activism and volunteering with the Sierra Club/Inner City Outings.