Mark A. Amador
Former San Diego County prosecutor, trial lawyer, and counsel for California crime victims and families.
A career inside California’s criminal justice system
Mark Amador joined Wingert Grebing Brubaker & Walshok LLP after a career in public service as a prosecutor in the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office. His work included more than 100 trials, more than 25 murder convictions in jury trials, leadership of the office’s Appellate and Training Division, and responsibility for major statewide-law implementation projects.
His final prosecution in 2025 involved a decades-old cold-case homicide solved through investigative genetic genealogy. Earlier, he served as lead counsel in the longest criminal trial in San Diego Superior Court history, a 15-month multiple-defendant death-penalty case.
Leadership, training, and appellate work
Mr. Amador led the District Attorney’s Appellate and Training Division for five years, including supervision of the office’s ethics program. From 2023 through 2025, he served as Chief of New Legislation Implementation and led work involving resentencing under new California laws.
He has taught and presented on constitutional law, discovery, ethics, evidence, trial skills, and other aspects of criminal practice.
Why that background matters in victim representation
Victim-rights work is not the same as prosecution. But representing a victim effectively requires understanding how prosecutors, investigators, probation departments, courts, and post-conviction agencies actually operate.
That experience can be especially useful when the victim needs to understand the significance of an upcoming hearing, frame a request in a way the system can act on, document restitution, prepare to be heard, or distinguish a constitutional victim-rights issue from a decision that remains within prosecutorial or judicial discretion.
Education and admissions
- University of San Diego School of Law
- University of California, Los Angeles
- State Bar of California
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California
Credential information is based on Wingert Grebing Brubaker & Walshok LLP’s public biography of Mark A. Amador.
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