Mark will bring an attitude of service, empathy and respect to our Family Court.

Mark has practiced law for three decades in Calcasieu Parish, mostly in the area of family law. He spent the past 12 years as Executive Director of the SWLA Law Center, a nonprofit organization providing legal representation to those just above the poverty level, who can’t afford attorneys and yet don’t qualify for free legal aid. In this capacity, Mark worked beyond the traditional role of an attorney to serve as a true community leader, finding innovative solutions, funding sources and acting as a spokesperson for citizens who need a voice.

After earning his bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Mississippi and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1991, he spent his early years clerking for the late Third Circuit Court of Appeal Judge Henry Yelverton in Lake Charles. He then joined the Painter Law Firm, where he was an associate attorney for the late David Painter, who served as a critical mentor for Mark as a young attorney. David was adopted as a “new baby” when he was three months old in 1937, leading him to develop a new-baby adoption practice in addition to a thriving general civil practice.  David also served as a Lake Charles city councilman, a Calcasieu Parish District Court Judge, a Louisiana Court of Appeal Judge, and was an active church leader at the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd.

When David was elected to the 14^th Judicial District Court, Mark continued to serve clients and the community through his legal practice, then known as the Judson Law Firm, along with his father-in-law, retired State Senator and District Judge William L. McLeod, Jr. In the Judson Law Firm, Mark continued his general civil practice with an emphasis on family law and new-baby adoptions. He also became one of the first trained family law mediators in our area and played a leadership role in introducing mediation as an alternative dispute resolution method that encouraged parents to resolve family disputes privately as opposed to litigation.

In the year 2000, United Title of Louisiana, Inc., invited Mark to become its managing attorney for the SWLA division of the statewide company. In this capacity, Mark grew in knowledge of real estate law and developed an acute awareness of the future impact that legal documents may or may not have on the merchantability of real estate title. He will use his real estate knowledge to make sure all documents produced by the family court (i.e. community property partitions, back due child support judgments, paternity findings, etc.) are properly executed to minimize future title problems. 

He also grew in the areas of business development, customer service, and customer retention. Mark quickly learned that, as opposed to litigation, real estate was transactional, and success was only as good as his responsiveness to his customers’ needs. Over time, through this real estate experience, Mark learned that customer service and customer relationships were vital to success. As a practicing lawyer and as the past director of the Law Center, Mark knows that the Court’s purpose is to serve the Court’s customers: the public; and will bring this keen insight with him to the management of the family court. 

A Volunteer and Trusted Leader in our Community.

Mark is an elder, Sunday school teacher and lay preacher for First Presbyterian Church, and is a member of the Profit and Loss Association of SWLA, a Christian business organization. He is a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association, the SWLA Bar Association, the SWLA Bar Family Law Section, and the SWLA Round Table of Title Examiners.

Past community experience includes being a founding member, team leader and frequent emcee of the Ecumenical 100 Men’s Breakfast, which met monthly for 17 years where over 100 men from numerous congregations gathered to fellowship and discuss topics of spiritual and local interest. He is a graduate of Leadership SWLA and was honored as a 40 Under 40 Honoree by the Times of Lake Charles. He is a past chair of the SWLA Family Mediation Council, past Chair of the SWLA Association of Realtors Affiliate Members, past Chair of the Albert Tate Inn of the American Inns of Court, past chair of the Association of Fundraising Professionals and past Chair of the SWLA Bar Association Young Lawyer Section.

Calling on his broadcast journalism roots; Mark spent the past 25 years as the volunteer radio play-by-play announcer for Barbe High School Football. In this experience, Mark had the fortune of working with  Zeb Johnson, Richard Dow, Jack Miller and Scott Holtzman to make games heard not only around SWLA, but also around the country and around the world to parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and even servicemen and women who were deployed.

Mark is married to Sara McLeod Judson, CEO of the Community Foundation of Southwest Louisiana. Their daughter, Rachel, participated in the French Immersion program of the Calcasieu Parish public school system, graduated from the Louisiana School of Math, Science and the Arts and will be a spring 2023 graduate of McGill University.