Mark Denbeaux

Mark P. Denbeaux (born July 30, 1943 in Gainesville, Florida) is an American attorney, professor, and author.

He is a law professor at Seton Hall University School of Law in Newark, New Jersey and the Director of its Center for Policy and Research.

He is best known for his reports on the Guantanamo Bay detention camp and its operations.

Denbeaux has testified to Congress about the findings of the Center's reports.

He and his son, Joshua Denbeaux, are the legal representatives of two Tunisian detainees at Guantanamo.

He is also the lead Civilian Military Commission Counsel for two detainees who were tortured by the Central Intelligence Agency in black sites prior to their detainment.

Denbeaux is an expert in forensics and has testified as an expert witness in cases across the country.

Denbeaux also is a practicing attorney in the family law firm of Denbeaux & Denbeaux in Westwood, New Jersey.

Mark Denbeaux was born on July 30, 1943, in Gainesville, Florida.

He attended local schools before going to the Commonwealth School.

An active supporter of civil rights in the 1960s, Denbeaux participated in the March on Washington on August 28, 1963.

Denbeaux later founded a NAACP chapter in Wooster.

The Wooster NAACP eventually became the Wooster Orville NAACP because it was too large to be run by students.

Denbeaux received his B.A. from College of Wooster in 1965.

He participated in the Selma to Montgomery marches for voting rights in 1965.

He attended New York University School of Law, where he received his J.D. in 1968.

After graduating from NYU Law School in 1968, Denbeaux became a founding member of the South Bronx Legal Services.

He served as the citywide coordinator for the Community Action for Legal Services, New York's organization of antipoverty lawyers, from 1970 to 1972.

During this time he also filed complaints against judges for hostility towards poor people.

During the 1970s and early 1980s, Denbeaux represented Black Panther Party in The Bronx and Manhattan with Jeffrey Brand, now the Dean of the University of San Francisco School of Law.

He represented the Young Lords in the Bronx during their takeover of Lincoln Hospital.

In the early 1970s, Denbeaux represented a number of U.S. soldiers charged with disobeying orders during the Vietnam War and the anti-war movement.

He defended some in courts martial.

In 1972, Denbeaux joined the Seton Hall Law School Faculty.

He has taught courses including Evidence, Remedies, Uniform Commercial Code, Contracts, Professional Responsibility, Federal Civil Procedure, Torts, and Constitutional Law.

He has been an elected member of the American Law Institute since 1980.

The first report was a statistical analysis of characteristics of the 517 detainees held in 2005.

The Guantanamo Reports have been widely cited and published globally.

In 2005, Denbeaux began representing two Tunisian detainees, Rafiq Bin Bashir Bin Jalud Al Hami and Lufti Bin Ali.

In 2006, Denbeaux founded the Center for Policy and Research at Seton Hall University Law School.

This work was originally inspired by Denbeaux's pro bono representation of two Guantanamo detainees.

He and his son are among more than 100 attorneys who have represented detainees there.

The Center produces analytic reports in three key areas: interrogations and intelligence, national security, and forensics.

Under Denbeaux's supervision, students working as research fellows in teams develop skills in pattern recognition, factual evaluation, and data analysis; Seton Hall University has published their original reports on issues concerning law and public policy.

Denbeaux is well known for the Center's Guantanamo Reports, studies of United States operations and policies at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp; by late 2009, fifteen studies had been published in this series.

The law research fellows have systematically analyzed data published by the Department of Defense; they have reviewed more than 100,000 pages of government documents procured through the Freedom of Information Act.

In 2009, al Hami was released to Slovakia.

In 2009, he began his pro bono representation of two more detainees, Abu Zubaydah and Mohamad Farik Amin.

In 2011, bin Ali was released to Kazakhstan.

He was later honored and asked to speak at the 50th anniversary Freedom Dinner in 2015.